A day ahead of World Pancreatic Cancer Day, lawmakers vowed last Wednesday to refile bills next session to bolster prevention and screening efforts, and improve access to treatment.

Legislation aimed at reducing lives lost to pancreatic cancer, which Sen. Jo Comerford’s office said is estimated to be the second-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in Massachusetts this year, was sent to study in May by the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing. The proposals, which were sponsored by nearly 100 lawmakers, had earlier cleared the Joint Committee on Public Health.

“We’re going to need all of us to say this is a priority coming into the next legislative session to get done,” Comerford, a bill sponsor, said during a briefing with the American Cancer Society Action Network and Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. “It really is time we got it done.”

Gov. Healey has signed a law expanding access to follow-up breast cancer screenings and exams. 

The American Cancer Society estimated there would be 1,470 new cases of pancreatic cancer this year in Massachusetts and 1,140 deaths. The five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer is 13 percent, according to PanCAN. 

“I have a colleague, I have friends, and I have constituents who have or are battling pancreatic cancer and feel the weight of the pressure that every moment our legislation isn’t passed is a moment that somebody’s potential survival rate hangs in the balance,” bill sponsor Rep. Hannah Kane said.

Comerford said she’s not planning to make any major changes next session to the legislation, which tasks the Department of Public Health with administering a “comprehensive” pancreatic cancer initiative to offer coordinated prevention, screening, education, and support programs across Massachusetts.

It also establishes an advisory council, which would work with DPH to study the prevalence of pancreatic cancer, unmet needs of patients and their families, time-of-diagnosis statistics, and “likely risks for the disease.”

Comerford called DPH Commissioner Robbie Goldstein a “tremendous ally. His staff is tuned into this issue, as are the leadership of both of our chambers,” she noted. Referencing the next session, she added, “This is the session, friends, that together we will push this bill over the finish line in honor of so many people who have struggled with this disease.”

The bill directs the commissioner of insurance to analyze the status of coverage for genetic testing for pancreatic cancer, and the Center for Health Information and Analysis to update its mandated benefit review and cost analysis reports of pancreatic cancer screenings.

The legislation largely reflects recommendations from a commission on pancreatic cancer, which produced a report in October 2019.

“People are literally dying, and this bill will make a difference so fewer families will have to go through what mine and so many others have suffered through,” said Brock Cordeiro, who chaired the commission and lost his father to pancreatic cancer.