zlacker

> I was not aware he was ill. Always sad to hear people that are taken by cancer.

It was pancreatic cancer, which is the deadliest cancer. It kills very quickly and as far as I know, it's impossible to cure.

It killed my mom: 3 months between diagnosis and death. She didn't want treatment because it couldn't save her; it would only postpone the inevitable and she didn't want to spend the rest of her days in hospitals.

>>mcv+(OP)
:-(. Always sad to hear such news. Stay strong mate!

>>mcv+(OP)
I'm sorry to hear about your mom. It's not impossible to cure, but it's very uncommon. I think that if it is caught early, only 10% of people eventually become disease-free.

>>mcv+(OP)
It took my dad last year, diagnosis in April, gone by mid-June. It was so aggressive he chose "medical assistance in death" (MAID), because he didn't want to be in hospitals all-the-time. He had half-completed the process, then had a stroke on June 4th, where he was then admitted to hospital. The stroke cause aphasia, so he couldn't communicate very well (speech was very disjointed, but he could understand everyone) - they brough in a speech pathologist, after a couple weeks they we able to confirm that he still wanted 'MAID', so - I had to make the decision as to when. (And - I agreed, spending time in hospitals, fighting the inevitable was antithetic to his whole personality)

Cleared by 2nd round of medical professionals to make the MAID decision on a Wednesday, so - we scheduled for Friday - he passed away naturally Thursday morning.

>>mcv+(OP)
Note that it really depends on the type of the pancreatic cancer. While pancreatic adenocarcinomas are some of the worst cancers out there (overall 5y survival of 8%), others like pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours have a fairly good prognosis. Famously, Steve Jobs sought alternative medicine solutions to the latter, which was probably misguided.

>>mcv+(OP)
A friend of mine survived it, I wouldn't wish pancreatic cancer on even my enemies. That stuff is tough. I do the Purple Stride with her every year to celebrate her battle.

RIP Kevin, hearing your stories and the movie Hackers was a huge inspiration in me getting into what we do.

>>jjkacz+si
Sorry for your loss.

>>jjkacz+si
Thank you for sharing, sorry for your loss.

>>puzzli+Em
I'm not sure it's the alternative treatments that did him in... it was the AIDS that he kept a secret and was subsequently revealed by wikileaks.

>>puzzli+Em
I come from a long line of clinical/medical folks in my family - and me on the tech side of medicine...

That said the following is me talking out my ass, but I have followed a very few number of pancreatic cases - jobs being one... and there is one anecdotal that I would hope people closer to such cases can chime into ; how much wine did these people drink (jobs was a prolific wine drinker)

Im wondering if sulfates from wine are a major player.

https://www.distractify.com/p/patrick-swayze-alcoholic

>>j0hnyl+zy
Do you have a credible link? The quick search I did suggests the evidence was unreliable and likely forged.

>>samsta+9A
If they were a major player it wouldn’t be so subtle, it would be an industry wide problem. Alcohol causes pancreatic cancer for sure, but sulfites specifically? I’d beed a lot of evidence to believe that.

>>2devnu+QE
Sure, but that shouldnt preclude looking into it...

As you stated "*I need a lot of evidence*" - which is exactly what I am asking for. "Moar evidance"

And sulfates may not be the right metric...

So if we can fully identify dietary commonalities of pancreatic cancer patients, then we can get a little farther down this path to understanding...

What would be the most amazing use of "AI" would be to have a biological model of a pure human body (as far as nutrients and blah blah are concerned) - then cycle through feeding that biology various substances and seeing how it propogates through the system)

>>mcv+(OP)
A friend of mine who is a surgeon originally was learning to become a pancreatic cancer surgeon. She changed to GI because the mortality rate was just so high and so fast that it was extremely heartbreaking and depressing.

>>samsta+9A
Anything that I have read about Jobs was that he rarely drank alcohol.

>>mcv+(OP)
There is some reason to hope, tho regrettably too late for your family:

https://www.mskcc.org/news/can-mrna-vaccines-fight-pancreati...

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseas...

>>samsta+9A
Jobs famously didn't drink much alcohol; he was way more into exotic fruit juices and such. Where did you get the idea he did? And what's with the oddly narrow "must be the sulfates, in wine specifically". Why not tannins? Polyphenols? Organic acids? We already know alcohol contributes to a variety of cancers...what compelling evidence is there that sulfate need be involved?

>>loup-v+BE
I'm only aware that documents were circulating saying that, but now that I'm searching around, I think the best details are here:

https://wikileaks.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs_purported_HIV_medical_...

Conclusion is that the documents shouldn't be taken at face value... so maybe not?

However, if he was HIV+ I can totally see why it would be covered up.

I guess it's a big question mark, but it's not unbelievable.

>>mcv+(OP)
My mom's situation was almost exactly the same. Our family has a history of cancer and it turned out she had the harmful BRCA2 variant.

Were you offered any kind of genetic testing?

https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/geneti...

>>j0hnyl+4V
There are a lot of conspiracy theories about AIDS, and in the case like the death of Steve Jobs I guess this sort of rumor is bolstered by the fact that a lot of people hid their diagnosis due to stigma. Jobs was famously very focused on image. But I think most of that stigma was gone by 2010.

>>kjs3+FQ
His Sommelier. I cant go into it. (and still this is not first hand from me - just what I heard... so I accept being completely wrong)

And I didnt meant to narrow - it was the more famous of what you states, and thank you.

My money is on tannins, but that is just me...

>>brando+sN
I withdraw my statmenet because all data conflicts and I have no idea.

>>samsta+h22
Tannins? Aren't those also in tea? Could you please stop saying such scary things?

>>samsta+9A
> Im wondering if sulfates from wine are a major player.

I work in healthcare in one of the wine capitals of the world, Napa County, CA.

We do not have a higher rate of pancreatic cancer than anywhere else. It is average. If sulfates from wine were a factor, it is quite likely that we would have seen a higher rate of pancreatic cancer here.

https://www.countyofnapa.org/DocumentCenter/View/11029/Main-...

>>mcv+Mr2
Tannins (and sulfates) are found in all sorts of food. But it's way easier to take the intellectual shortcut and say "it's probably X", instead of "it's probably really complicated and there are a number of factors involved". Some people want simple answers, no matter how complicated the problem is, or how wrong the answer is.

>>asveik+KF1
The stigma is most definitely not gone with the exception of the gay community, and maybe younger folks. If Jobs had AIDS and hid it, it wouldn't be a shock, but I think it would be a contributing factor to disinformation as most people believe the pancreatic cancer happened on its own and was exacerbated by his alternate treatments.

>>j0hnyl+au4
Well the other thing is, if he got a positive test in 2006, he'd be on anti-retrovirals and wouldn't have died of it. He had money and access to good doctors. It's rare for someone like him to die of AIDS complications.

>>jrnich+uz2
No, its about breast cancer.