Policy priority
National guidelines and care pathways for pancreatic cancer
Clearer expectations. Better coordination. More consistent access to care.
Clinical guidelines describe evidence-informed recommendations about care. A care pathway turns those recommendations into a practical sequence: what should happen, when, who is responsible, and how people move between services. Canada has pieces of both. Our priority is a nationally coordinated approach that connects them — evidence-based recommendations, practical pathways, implementation, and public accountability.
Our work on this priority
In development
National care pathway working committee
The Heather Cutler Foundation's Executive Director, Christopher Cutler, is serving on the working committee developing national care pathways for pancreatic cancer alongside Craig's Cause Pancreatic Cancer Society.
The initiative aims to develop Canada's first national pancreatic cancer care pathway. Christopher's committee participation forms part of the Foundation's work toward clearer, more coordinated care across Canada.
Read our public update →
Progress log
Position and responses
October 2026 — This page published, setting out the Foundation's recommendations for the pathway's design, implementation, and reporting. Milestones from the development process will be recorded here as official announcements allow.
Status: In development. Information on this page last confirmed October 2026. We publish only what we are authorized to share — no committee drafts, meeting discussions, or other members' views.
The problem
Pancreatic cancer care crosses many services — family medicine, imaging, surgery, oncology, dietetics, palliative care — and often several centres. Existing guidance provides important foundations: Alberta and British Columbia publish guidelines and treatment pathways, and Canadian consensus statements address pancreatic cancer care. What does not yet exist is a nationally coordinated pathway that connects those recommendations to the practical sequence of care, to implementation, and to public reporting.
The two halves work together, not interchangeably. Alberta's pancreatic treatment pathway, for example, explicitly accompanies its clinical practice guideline — an illustration of how a pathway translates recommendations into who does what, and when.
Without that connection, the gaps land on patients: an unclear next step, a referral that stalls between centres, no obvious answer to who is coordinating their care. Guidance that stays on paper does not change any of that.
Our recommendations
These are the Foundation's recommendations — our positions on what a national approach should achieve. They are not commitments the working committee or any government has made.
Whose position is this? The recommendations on this page describe the Heather Cutler Foundation's policy position. They should not be interpreted as the final recommendations or endorsed position of the national pathway working committee.
1
Define a connected pathway, from first suspicion through ongoing care
We are asking the national pathway to connect the whole sequence of care — not simply publish a list of treatments:
- Investigation and referral
- Diagnostic assessment
- Staging and multidisciplinary review
- Treatment planning
- Appropriate testing, and consideration of clinical trials
- Nutrition, symptom management, and palliative care
- Follow-up, recurrence, and transitions in care
Existing Canadian pathways and consensus work already provide foundations for multidisciplinary assessment and supportive care. The national pathway should build on them.
2
Make responsibilities and referral routes explicit
We are asking the pathway to name, for each step:
- Who initiates each referral
- Which service receives it
- What information should accompany it
- Who communicates the plan to the patient
- Who coordinates care when services are delivered at different centres
- How delays or unresolved referrals are escalated
These are design requirements we are proposing. Timelines and targets should be set through the evidence-informed development process — not invented in advance.
3
Pair publication with implementation
We are asking provincial and territorial cancer programs and health authorities to explain, alongside the pathway, how they will put it into practice:
- A named implementation lead
- A local adaptation plan
- Staff education
- Patient-facing information
- The resource gaps they have identified
- A process for keeping the pathway updated
A national document is a starting point. The work required to make it usable is part of the commitment.
4
Report whether the pathway changes access
We are asking cancer programs to report, as the pathway is implemented:
- Referral-to-assessment intervals
- Access to multidisciplinary review
- Access to indicated testing
- Access to dietitian and symptom-support services
- Completion of referrals between centres
- Patient-reported understanding of the care plan
- Differences in access by geography
These are measures we propose for development — not established national indicators, and not data that exist today. They are how we will judge progress on this page's recommendations.
Foundations we can build on
- Alberta publishes both halves. Alberta Health Services maintains a clinical practice guideline for adenocarcinoma of the pancreas and an accompanying pancreatic treatment pathway. (AHS guideline · AHS pathway)
- British Columbia publishes regional guidance. BC Cancer's upper gastrointestinal cancer guidance addresses pancreatic cancer care. (BC Cancer)
- Canadian consensus work exists. The Eastern (2018) and Western (2019) Canadian gastrointestinal cancer consensus conferences published statements addressing pancreatic cancer care. (Eastern consensus · Western consensus)
- Multidisciplinary care is the accepted model. A review of multidisciplinary engagement in pancreatic cancer care documents how team-based assessment is organized and why it matters. (PMC review)
- A national initiative is under way. Craig's Cause Pancreatic Cancer Society identifies a National Pathways Draft and working committee among its initiatives, and a public project listing describes the objective of developing Canada's first National Pancreatic Cancer Care Pathway. (Craig's Cause · Mitacs project listing)
What better coordination should mean
Patients and families should be able to understand the next step, know who is responsible for arranging it, and know whom to contact when a referral or care transition is unclear.
National coordination should support consistent expectations while allowing care to be adapted to individual needs and local circumstances. Consistent processes and equitable access do not mean every patient needs the same treatment plan.
Patient resources →