
Pancreatic cancer from a different perspective - sciadvance
https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2017/06/15/snapshots-of-life-a-van-gogh-moment-for-pancreatic-cancer/
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jessriedel
A reliable early warning system for pancreatic cancer is highly sought after
because the disease progresses so quickly once detected. If caught while still
confined to the pancreas it can often be cured by surgery, but the large
majority of patients are already metastatic before symptoms appear.

The one-year relative survival rate after diagnosis is 20%, and the five-year
rate is 7%. In the US it is the 4th most common cause of death from cancer,
and kills more than half a million people per year worldwide.

[http://pancreatic.org/pancreatic-cancer/about-the-
pancreas/p...](http://pancreatic.org/pancreatic-cancer/about-the-
pancreas/prognosis/)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancreatic_cancer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancreatic_cancer)

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gthtjtkt
Every time I read about something like this, I wonder how people can make it
through medical school without dying of anxiety. So many terminal illnesses
that could already be killing you with no early warning signs... how can they
sleep!?

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rscho
Medical school makes you dead inside, which is very practical to work long
hours and not worrying about dying on the outside :)

As a European working in the US medical system, my general impression is that
US people fear death much more than in Europe, where people bother much more
about suffering than dying in itself. I don't really understand why, but
americans seem in my experience far more willing to undergo invasive
procedures to live longer, even if it means bad quality life.

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killjoywashere
We tend to interpret suffering as virtue. Even PG advises faced with a choice,
doing what sucks more is probably the right answer.

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scurvy
This article is a little light on content, but bear in mind that they're only
talking about adenocarcinoma pancreatic cancer. There are other tumors of the
pancreas including neuroendocrine (aka the Steve Jobs kind) and squamous cell
(hyper-rare yet somehow my father ended up with this).

The distinction in important because neuroendocrine can be treated with good
outcomes. They're making good progress in treating adenocarcinomas (Drs Von
Hoff and Borazanci in Scottsdale making good progress).

Some sort of early detection mechanism for all of these cancers would be
amazing for everyone involved.

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killjoywashere
Meh, finding a transcription factor for a tissue type is helpful, but the
diagnosis of pancreatic cancer isn't in doubt all that often. The hard part is
target a tumor that has already mutated its way out of its organ of origin.
And transcription factors are very hard to target therapeutically.

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bluetwo
F--k cancer.

Especially pancreatic cancer.

