# How fast can cancer kill? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 20, 2011, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-can-cancer-kill/593431 "2011-08-20T14:36:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2015, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-can-cancer-kill/593431/41 "2015-12-31T16:22:29Z")
Well this thread is depressing. ---
**Author:** ![sweat209](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@sweat209](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweat209)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2016, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-can-cancer-kill/593431/42 "2016-01-01T01:16:13Z")
> [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](#): > > Well this thread is depressing. People dying of cancer, heart problems and motor vehicle accident or getting hit by car is the most conman cause of death in the industries country. What is it 1 in 5 people get cancer in life? And what 1 in 4 get into a motor vehicle accident in their life? And cardiovascular problem are the most conman cause of death? ---
**Author:** ![PlumBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@PlumBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlumBob)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2016, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-can-cancer-kill/593431/43 "2016-01-01T04:16:03Z")
An acquaintance of mine felt ill while playing volley ball (first symptom) and was dead from acute leukemia in less than a week. I’m really fucking scared of acute leukemia! ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2016, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-can-cancer-kill/593431/44 "2016-01-01T04:18:31Z")
Not to be morbid, but we’re all going to die of something. If we avoid infectious disease, accidents and other trauma, eventually we will fall to heart dz, stroke, or cancer (or dementia). ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2016, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-can-cancer-kill/593431/45 "2016-01-01T05:33:28Z")
> [@PlumBob](#): > > An acquaintance of mine felt ill while playing volley ball (first symptom) and was dead from acute leukemia in less than a week. > I’m really fucking scared of acute leukemia! There are several types of adult-onset leukemia that can kill in a matter of hours or days, and at least one where they’ve never developed any kind of chemo protocol because nobody has ever lived long enough for doctors to devise one. ---
**Author:** ![davida03801](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5e925/32.png) [@davida03801](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davida03801)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2016, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-can-cancer-kill/593431/46 "2016-01-01T11:55:02Z")
I would assume there is a bell distribution curve on the speed of cancer deaths by variety of cancer. Some take many years, and others a few days. Isn’t that the way most things work out ? ---
**Author:** ![whc.03grady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a6a055/32.png) [@whc.03grady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whc.03grady)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2016, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-can-cancer-kill/593431/47 "2016-01-02T06:01:17Z")
> [@lavenderviolet](#): > > Glioblastoma multiforme (unfortunately the most common kind of cancer arising in the brain) comes to mind … I see what you did there. ---
**Author:** ![Chief\_Pedant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@Chief\_Pedant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Pedant)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2016, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-can-cancer-kill/593431/48 "2016-01-02T14:07:47Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > There are several types of adult-onset leukemia that can kill in a matter of hours or days, and at least one where they’ve never developed any kind of chemo protocol because nobody has ever lived long enough for doctors to devise one. This is wildly wrong without some kind of clarification about your starting point. Obviously if the starting point is “at diagnosis” or “onset of symptoms” then the timeline could be zero for the unfortunate patient whose first symptom is his last (say; a hemorrhage caused by low platelets as a result of a production failure due to an unrecognized hematopoietic cancer). But… To properly answer the question requires a clear definition for what we mean by “cancer” and what we mean by “how fast?”. Let us assume that, by “cancer that kills” we are talking about a cell which is abnormal enough to cause death (due to a variety of mechanisms) if the cell and its descendants are supported long enough to cause one of the varieties of ways by which cancer kills. We can then look at the doubling time of those cells and approximate how long from the time the cell became abnormal to the time the patient died. For hematopoietic cancers, this would be at least months from the time the abnormal progenitor cell showed up, and for solid tumors, years. One cancer cell does not kill you. Two do not. And so on, until you get enough of a tumor load to bump you off (mass effect; organ dysfunction; replacement of bone marrow; whatever). One can take the doubling time of a cell and extrapolate back to a putative starting point. This is probably not a simple exponential extrapolation, but is probably closer to what is called a Gompertzian model, where early in the cancer’s course the doubling volume for the tumor load is more rapid than later on. Either way, the best answer to a very rapidly-dividing cancer is still “at least weeks” from the time a hematopoietic cancer started til you take a dirt nap; years for most solid tumors. ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2016, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-can-cancer-kill/593431/49 "2016-01-02T14:28:51Z")
I agree with the points you made and I’m glad you brought them up. Some ‘cancers’ will never kill you. Even a very aggressive tumour might not kill someone who is unlucky(?) enough to die of something else first. However, I do think that it is more ‘natural’ to understand the OP’s question in terms that make sense in human life and clinical science- how long does it (or can it) take cancer to kill you after diagnosis (or symptom onset)? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-can-cancer-kill/593431.md?page=2)