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Comment by paganel | Hacker News Reader

Or perhaps he left in his own terms. Which is a happier ending than grueling chemotherapy

Jobs had a pancreatic cancer with a very good chance of complete cure via surgery and chemotherapy. I think that a cure would have been a happier ending than suffering and dying from pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic cancer actually has one of the worst survival rates; in the UK around 25% of people diagnosed survive past a year, with 5% living more than five years after diagnosis [0]. Chemo in those circumstances often has the effect of prolonging life while significantly decreasing the quality of life, and as such many people choose not to go through with it.

[0] https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/pancreatic-can...

Right but Steve had a rare version of pancreatic cancer that was totally curable and had good odds of success. But he waited too long while wasting his time with at-home remedies (an all-fruit diet, which actually made things worse), and by the time he followed his doctor’s advice it was too late:

https://blogs.webmd.com/from-our-archives/20111006/steve-job...

> Once it was clear that Jobs had the rare islet-cell pancreatic cancer, there was an excellent chance of a cure. According to Cleveland Clinic gastroenterologist Maged Rizk, MD, there’s an overall 80% to 90% chance of 5-year survival. In the world of cancer survival, that’s a huge milestone.

Ah, TIL. Thanks for clearing that up!

A was struggling with one thought today, about my own resistance to medical therapy.

A healthy body does not need medication.

Yes or no? Or does medication make one healthy? There's not supposed to be an easy answer. I have some "heavy" duty ongoing medication I'm sad to depend on. (Let's not exaggerate though)

Medication can make one healthy. It can cure, prevent or control many diseases and conditions. Of course it's better to not need that medication, but when you need it it's better to take it than not.

IMO you're only fully healthy when you don't need medication anymore

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