A family from Indianapolis have been lobbying for a new revolutionary cancer drug to be made available to help sufferers such as Patrick Swayze.

The Loughmans, who found out one of their own family members, Connie, has been inflicted with the deadly pancreatic disease, have set up a campaign to urge U.S. medical bosses to make the cancer treatment more readily available.

The family hopes that medical officials will take their protests more seriously since knowledge of Swayze’s pancreatic cancer was made public.

A spokesman for the Loughmans says: "Well-meaning, but misguided, regulations have tied the hands of the Food & Drug Administration and the biotechnology firm, Genvec, from providing access to the only drug shown to cure the disease.

"Meanwhile, 90 per cent of patients die within one year of being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and 95 per cent are dead within five years of diagnosis.

"The Loughman family hopes that public pressure will convince the FDA and biotechnology firm, Genvec, to cut through the red tape and grant access of the gene therapy TNFerade to Mrs. Loughman... And others battling pancreatic cancer, including actor Patrick Swayze."