Obviously the doctor is not trying to take away Patrick and Lisa's hope but the grim reality is that the 5 year survival rate is still 5% for pancreatic cancer. I personally don't know of anyone who lived more than 6 months and some as short as 3 months from date of Dx. It is nothing short of bordering on the miraculous that Patrick and Steve Jobs have lived as long as they have. Especially, in Patricks case, where he has liver mets as well. Liver cancer, by itself, has a very poor survival rate. They are also downplaying the pneumonia issue, which is quite serious in a compromised immune system.

We humans have such a distaste and denial about death, especially from an institutional perspective. In Elizabeth Kubler Ross's book on Death and Dying she stated the creative ways that institutions refer to it. Patients don't "die" for instance, they "expire". Patients don't "die" in surgery, they are "lost on the table". It's almost a violation of the Hypocratic oath to "allow" a patient to die. I have had to lobby doctors to get them to write hospice orders, especially for my dad, who passed 2 weeks after the order was written. He could have had months of much higher quality time with home hospice care. I am still angry at the doctor about that.

There has to be a fine line between taking away someones hope and allowing and helping them to prepare for their death.

It is all very, very sad.

And, yes, there were people, undergoing treatment in radiation oncology, sneaking smokes in the bathroom as UCSF.