Why pancreatic cancer is tough to treat

Currently, pancreatic cancer has become one of the most deadly forms of cancer.

Patients only survive 20% for a year after being diagnosed with the disease, the Daily Mail reported.

Because pancreas are so deep in the body, it is hard to detect warning signs, Dr Eric Collisson, a leading University of California, San Francisco oncologist told Daily Mail.

"There's no mammogram for it, and you don't feel your pancreas in the shower. It's so deep in the body that a cancer has very few symptoms that cause it to be discovered, " Dr Collisson explained.

Adding, "The job of the pancreas in normal people is to make enzymes that digest your food - especially fatty food - and to make insulin and glucodone, hormones which signal other parts of the body to get ready to digest and process food."

Cancers of this kind are only detected when tumours block something vital like the abdomen.

While there is no screening test for pancreatic cancers, many scientists are working to develop one, including those at John Hopkins University.