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Comment by rexreed | Hacker News Reader

Pancreatic cancer scares the bejeebus out of me. One day I hope there's some solution because it's almost a death warrant if you get that diagnosis.

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This article has nothing to do with cancer, though.

A bionic pancreas won't help you at all if your native pancreas developed a malignancy.

Right, my response was more of a hope that continued research in this area would lead to possibly some solutions for earlier diagnosis and treatment. Cancer is such a cancer.

Not to scare you more but that covers just about any metastatic cancer.

thanks, that's really reassuring.

well - to be reassuring... we all have a death sentence imposed by birth. As we get older the cumulative chances of it having happened increase, eventually hitting 100%.

Cancer doesn't change that - lots of people with cancer get killed by car accidents or heart attacks. In fact a friend of mine recovered 100% from their cancer and then killed themselves on a motorbike.

The "bionic pancreas" wouldn't help with pancreatic cancer right? The problem is that nobody notices pancreatic cancer until the death warrant is signed (to use your metaphor). Using a bionic pancreas would be like putting out the fire in the kitchen only when the rest of the house is also in flames.

Definitely what is needed is better early detection but I know that's a can of worms of its own. I commented on the bionic pancreas article as I know it's not a solution to pancreatic cancer, but I'm hoping that continued research in this direction evolves into better diagnosis and cures.

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