• Question: What is the most dangerous form of cancer and how common is it?

    Asked by 573eura36 to Alex on 19 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Alex Pool

      Alex Pool answered on 19 Nov 2014:

      Great question, and a hard one to answer.

      I guess dangerous is hard as they all have the potential to kill you. The one that most people die of if they have it is pancreatic cancer. It has very few symptoms so by the time it is diagnosed it’s often so severe that survival is very low.

      Of all adults with pancreatic cancer, about 19 in every 100 (19%) live for at least 1 year after they are diagnosed. Only about 4 out of every 100 people diagnosed (4%) live for at least 5 years. And only 3 out of every 100 (3%) lives for at least 10 years.

      As for how common cancer is as a whole 1 in 3 people will get cancer in their lifetimes. Pancreatic cancer is the tenth most common cancer in the UK.

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