3 ms·

It depends on the type of cancer. For some classes of cancer, there are now treatments which dramatically improve the prognosis, with relatively mild side-effe

It depends on the type of cancer. For some classes of cancer, there are now treatments which dramatically improve the prognosis, with relatively mild side-effects. This is summarized well in the book The Emperor of Maladies. Pancreatic cancer is particularly intractable. The survival rate is extremely low. I don't blame him for trying everything. He had nothing to lose.

exit 15y ago
i can agree that once the question becomes how you will die of cancer instead of whether, then gentler (perhaps "alternative") treatment may be acceptable. the issue here though is that some people reject conventional treatment from the very beginning.
noarchy 15y ago
He had nothing to lose, perhaps, but maybe he did have something to lose if he was foregoing conventional treatments in favour of something that was of dubious efficacy. "If" is the key word, as I have no idea what was going on with regard to his very private (as was his right to be) medical treatments.
bryanlarsen 15y ago
According to the article, most pancreatic cancers are intractable, but islet cell neuroendocrine tumors have excellent survival rates.
- evgen 15y ago
  Compared to other forms of pancreatic cancer perhaps, but none of the 10-year survival rates for any of the pancreatic cancer variants I am familiar with is "excellent" no matter how you look at it. Given that Jobs lasted at least eight years after initial diagnosis it seems he was already on the upper end of the survival curve. Claiming, as Dunning did, that were it not for actions taken during the first months after diagnosis Steve Jobs would be alive today is a claim that Dunning is woefully unqualified to make.
hugh3 15y ago
As I understand it (and I'm only going by what he said in his Stanford commencement speech here) he had a rare form of pancreatic cancer which is treatable: The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months... I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now. Ouch.
- mattgreenrocks 15y ago
  What about the possibility of remission?
  - hugh3 15y ago
    Well yeah, that's what happened afaik Whether the nine month delay before getting surgery increased the likelihood of remission is a question I'm not qualified to answer. But until contradicted by an oncologist I'm going to go with "probably".

exit 15y ago

i can agree that once the question becomes how you will die of cancer instead of whether, then gentler (perhaps "alternative") treatment may be acceptable. the issue here though is that some people reject conventional treatment from the very beginning.

noarchy 15y ago

He had nothing to lose, perhaps, but maybe he did have something to lose if he was foregoing conventional treatments in favour of something that was of dubious efficacy. "If" is the key word, as I have no idea what was going on with regard to his very private (as was his right to be) medical treatments.

bryanlarsen 15y ago

According to the article, most pancreatic cancers are intractable, but islet cell neuroendocrine tumors have excellent survival rates.

evgen 15y ago
Compared to other forms of pancreatic cancer perhaps, but none of the 10-year survival rates for any of the pancreatic cancer variants I am familiar with is "excellent" no matter how you look at it. Given that Jobs lasted at least eight years after initial diagnosis it seems he was already on the upper end of the survival curve. Claiming, as Dunning did, that were it not for actions taken during the first months after diagnosis Steve Jobs would be alive today is a claim that Dunning is woefully unqualified to make.

hugh3 15y ago

As I understand it (and I'm only going by what he said in his Stanford commencement speech here) he had a rare form of pancreatic cancer which is treatable: The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months... I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now. Ouch.

mattgreenrocks 15y ago
What about the possibility of remission?
- hugh3 15y ago
  Well yeah, that's what happened afaik Whether the nine month delay before getting surgery increased the likelihood of remission is a question I'm not qualified to answer. But until contradicted by an oncologist I'm going to go with "probably".