for all stages of pancreatic cancer combined, the one-year relative survival rate is 20%, and the five-year rate is 6%. These low survival rates are attributable to the fact that fewer than 20% of patients’ tumors are confined to the pancreas at the time of diagnosis; in most cases, the malignancy has already progressed to the point where surgical removal is impossible.
In those cases where resection can be performed, the average survival rate is 18 to 20 months. The overall five-year survival rate is about 10%, although this can rise as high as 20% to 25% if the tumor is removed completely and when cancer has not spread to lymph nodes.
In patients where a cure is not possible, progression of the disease may be accompanied by progressive weakness, weight loss, and pain. There may be bile duct obstruction which may produce jaundice and stomach obstruction caused by growth of the tumor.
I have a friend who is going strong after almost 8 years.
Ruth Buzzy Ginsburg is still on the job.
My Sister in Law survived 15 months with Pancreatic Cancer, and that was after she went to the hospital one day with "flu like symptoms" (pain in the stomach, unable to eat/hold food down) and was given only 3 months to live.
My Aunt managed to go almost 2 years with it, while a good friend of the family who's wife was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer passed in under 45 days.
It is a horrible, viscious, painful form of cancer that spares no one. It's absolutely terrible watchng someone wither away and die from it because that's what happens to people with pancreatic cancer: they wither away right before our very eyes.