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Pancreatic cancer terrifies me and keeps me up at night. It has virtually no symptoms until it’s too late. My friends dad was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer a

Pancreatic cancer terrifies me and keeps me up at night. It has virtually no symptoms until it’s too late. My friends dad was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died 6 weeks later. Every time a celebrity dies of cancer I always hope that it’s not pancreatic but the numbers keep increasing. Patrick Swayze, Steve Jobs, Alex Trebek, Aretha Franklin, now Jerry Springer. As someone with type 2 diabetes it’s something I worry about very often.

gww 3y ago
There are lots of other tumours that are just as deadly as pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Steve Jobs died of a pancreatic neuroendocrine Tumour. It should not be grouped with pancreatic adenocarcinoma. The former is approximately 7-8% of all pancreatic tumors and has a much better prognosis of almost 90% at 5 years if it's caught early. In Jobs case it was. Pancreatic adenocarcinoma has a dismal prognosis of <10% at 5 years. Edit. My Pancreatic cancer knowledge is a bit outdated but I recall type 2 diabetes being a risk factor for pancreatic cancer. I believe in some cases pancreatic cancer can cause diabetes because of the damage it does to the pancreas.
- 01100011 3y ago
  Yep. Ex-wife has neuroendocrine carcinoid tumors in her liver and pancreas, with the main tumor removed from her lung aroun 18-19 years of age. Unless your tumors are functional(i.e. they are neuroendocrine tissue and can secrete hormones) or rapidly growing, it's not a very severe disease and there are treatments available. After 6 years of monitoring by a leading oncologist, she was told she would live a long life and die of something else. That doesn't stop me from needing to pay her huge amounts of money for alimony, but it is what it is. Steve Jobs died because he was an idiot who tried quack therapies.
cdelsolar 3y ago
it's still very rare especially for young people. as someone with a degree of health anxiety, I sympathize, though.
tombert 3y ago
Yeah, I'm right up there with you. My uncle died of pancreatic cancer about 15 years ago, and like you said, by the time he knew about it, it was way too late. I wish there were easier ways to check for it early.
jordanpg 3y ago
I lost my dad to PC just 2 months ago. Same story: about 6 weeks from diagnosis to death. He was in otherwise good health for a 76 year old. Fuck PC. You can help here: https://pancan.org/ https://pancan.org/
- Animatronio 3y ago
  Sorry to hear that. It must have been terrible for him. My dad died because of PC about 8 years ago. It was just a bit over a month from the first scan to death. Makes me cry just remembering how awful those days were (for him, and for our family).
canucker2016 3y ago
Alan Rickman was diagnosed in 2005 with prostate cancer. He died in 2016 from pancreatic cancer. Matt Bencke, co-founder, CEO of Mighty AI, had pancreatic cancer. see https://finance.yahoo.com/news/change-day-170633700.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/change-day-170633700.html and [TRIGGER WARNING - sad] https://www.wired.com/story/the-day-i-found-out-my-life-was-hanging-by-a-thread/ https://www.wired.com/story/the-day-i-found-out-my-life-was-...

gww 3y ago

There are lots of other tumours that are just as deadly as pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Steve Jobs died of a pancreatic neuroendocrine Tumour. It should not be grouped with pancreatic adenocarcinoma. The former is approximately 7-8% of all pancreatic tumors and has a much better prognosis of almost 90% at 5 years if it's caught early. In Jobs case it was. Pancreatic adenocarcinoma has a dismal prognosis of <10% at 5 years. Edit. My Pancreatic cancer knowledge is a bit outdated but I recall type 2 diabetes being a risk factor for pancreatic cancer. I believe in some cases pancreatic cancer can cause diabetes because of the damage it does to the pancreas.

01100011 3y ago
Yep. Ex-wife has neuroendocrine carcinoid tumors in her liver and pancreas, with the main tumor removed from her lung aroun 18-19 years of age. Unless your tumors are functional(i.e. they are neuroendocrine tissue and can secrete hormones) or rapidly growing, it's not a very severe disease and there are treatments available. After 6 years of monitoring by a leading oncologist, she was told she would live a long life and die of something else. That doesn't stop me from needing to pay her huge amounts of money for alimony, but it is what it is. Steve Jobs died because he was an idiot who tried quack therapies.

cdelsolar 3y ago

it's still very rare especially for young people. as someone with a degree of health anxiety, I sympathize, though.

tombert 3y ago

Yeah, I'm right up there with you. My uncle died of pancreatic cancer about 15 years ago, and like you said, by the time he knew about it, it was way too late. I wish there were easier ways to check for it early.

jordanpg 3y ago

I lost my dad to PC just 2 months ago. Same story: about 6 weeks from diagnosis to death. He was in otherwise good health for a 76 year old. Fuck PC. You can help here: https://pancan.org/ https://pancan.org/

Animatronio 3y ago
Sorry to hear that. It must have been terrible for him. My dad died because of PC about 8 years ago. It was just a bit over a month from the first scan to death. Makes me cry just remembering how awful those days were (for him, and for our family).

canucker2016 3y ago

Alan Rickman was diagnosed in 2005 with prostate cancer. He died in 2016 from pancreatic cancer. Matt Bencke, co-founder, CEO of Mighty AI, had pancreatic cancer. see https://finance.yahoo.com/news/change-day-170633700.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/change-day-170633700.html and [TRIGGER WARNING - sad] https://www.wired.com/story/the-day-i-found-out-my-life-was-hanging-by-a-thread/ https://www.wired.com/story/the-day-i-found-out-my-life-was-...