Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by ip34162 1908 days ago
He was superstitious when it came to medicine, and that lead to his death. His cancer was curable.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/oct/21/steve-job...

1 comments

I mean, it’s curable but the 5 year survival rate is only 5-10% [0]

Jobs delaying treatment likely made it worse for him, but I don’t think it’s fair to say his disease was curable. Especially when compared to something like melanoma that’s 90% for five year survival [1].

Had his fruitarian tendencies led to him dying of hepatitis or something, that’s a different story.

[0] https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseas... [1] https://www.cancer.org/cancer/melanoma-skin-cancer/detection...

He had a rare type of pancreatic cancer.

// Jobs had a rare form of the cancer, known as neuroendocrine cancer, which grows more slowly and is easier to treat, explains Leonard Saltz, acting chief of the gastrointestinal oncology service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. "Survival for many years or even decades with endocrine cancer is not surprising." For that type, the sort that Jobs had, "survival is measured in years, as opposed to pancreatic cancer, which is measured in months." //

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/pancreatic-cancer...

Survival in years instead of months is not curable.
Being human is only survivable for years...
And no one should describe being human as “curable.”
It's worth pointing out that Jobs specifically had an islet cell tumour, which is a pretty distinct form of pancreatic cancer and has a 5-year survival rate of maybe 50-60%.

(This is not to make a point about any personal health decisions he may have taken, but just to clarify why you will often hear his cancer being described as "curable").

Thanks for clarifying the specific type of cancer. But I still think it’s inaccurate to call a 50-60% survival rate cancer as “curable.”