The John E Sab­ga Memo­r­i­al Foun­da­tion is sound­ing the alarm over what it de­scribes as a wor­ry­ing in­crease in pan­cre­at­ic can­cer in Trinidad and To­ba­go, even among young women, as it re­news calls for stronger ad­vo­ca­cy, ear­ly de­tec­tion, and ro­bust gov­ern­ment-led da­ta col­lec­tion.

Speak­ing at the foun­da­tion’s an­nu­al lun­cheon and sup­port group event held at Blue Line Restau­rant, Movie Towne yes­ter­day to mark the start of World Pan­cre­at­ic Can­cer Month in No­vem­ber, founder Na­tal­ie Sab­ga said that pan­cre­at­ic can­cer has be­come the third lead­ing cause of can­cer-re­lat­ed deaths glob­al­ly, with lo­cal num­bers be­lieved to be on the rise.

“We are see­ing a mas­sive in­crease in pan­cre­at­ic can­cer,” Sab­ga said. “We have sit­u­a­tions where eight peo­ple in a one-mile ra­dius are liv­ing with the dis­ease, and some­thing doesn’t make sense. We need to de­mand bet­ter about what’s go­ing in­to our fruits, veg­eta­bles, and wa­ter sys­tem, and ad­dress tox­ins from burn­ing, land­fills, and the oil and gas in­dus­try.”