# Steve Jobs and pancreatic cancer

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steve-jobs-and-pancreatic-cancer/481371>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [January 15, 2009, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steve-jobs-and-pancreatic-cancer/481371 "2009-01-15T02:56:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steve-jobs-and-pancreatic-cancer/481371/21 "2009-01-18T07:33:01Z")

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[Speaking of pancreatic cancer and detection.](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090115081515.htm)

> [@](#):
>
> Abnormalities in genes that repair mistakes in DNA replication may help identify people who are at high risk of developing pancreatic cancer, a research team from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center reports in the Jan. 15 issue of Clinical Cancer Research.

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**Author:** ![incidental](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/22d042/32.png) [@incidental](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/incidental)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steve-jobs-and-pancreatic-cancer/481371/22 "2009-01-18T14:44:33Z")

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> [@Tuckerfan](#):
>
> I wouldn’t be surprised if they included things like a CT or MRI scan, and catching _any_ cancer early, greatly improves one’s survivability chances.

I disagree - no responsible doc should be exposing people to CTs without a good reason. Prevention, without risk factors for something specific, is not a good reason. CTs give patients several orders of magnitude more radiation than x-rays. Some radiologists are concerned about the risk of giving cancer to people through unnecessary radiation.

MRIs are a bit of a different story - but still. Incidentolomas happen much more frequently than actual tumors, and you could end up doing your patient more harm than good.

Standards of care exist for a reason. The wealthy can certainly pay for unnecessary radiology studies if they want them, but that doesn’t mean that’s a good thing. I’ve seen adds selling full-body CTs to anyone off the street that can pay, for that matter.

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**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steve-jobs-and-pancreatic-cancer/481371/23 "2009-01-18T15:00:57Z")

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Apparently Apple Stock Holders don’t need to panic though: [http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20090118](http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20090118)

I’ll agree, Get well soon Mr. Jobs.

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