# What kind of cancer can kill you in two days? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 29, 2015, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cancer-can-kill-you-in-two-days/741625 "2015-12-29T05:46:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![incidental](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/22d042/32.png) [@incidental](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/incidental)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cancer-can-kill-you-in-two-days/741625/21 "2015-12-29T23:38:28Z")
Pancreatic cancer comes to mind as well - tends to be asymptomatic, is generally inoperable and fatal rather quickly. Not two days quickly, but not a whole lot is that fast. Besides infection of course. Infections can kill you in two days, easy-peasy. Anaplastic tumors in general are bad news - doesn’t matter where they are, but poorly differentiated anything does not bode well. Sometimes ‘benign’ is a misnomer too; I saw a little girl die within months of being diagnosed with a supposedly ‘benign’ tumor. Thing was enormous and wrapped all around her abdominal vasculature. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cancer-can-kill-you-in-two-days/741625/22 "2015-12-29T23:40:35Z")
Here’s a thread from a few years ago that addressed basically the same question, i.e. “[How fast can cancer kill](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=621126)?” In that thread (post 16), I said: > [@ME](#): > > In terms of cancer killing someone ultra-quickly, (off the top of my head) there are a few ways: > > 1. Probably the most likely cause for a rapid and sudden unexpected cancer death is via a pulmonary embolism, i.e. a blood clot to the lungs. In fact, virtually everyone with cancer is predisposed to blood clots. > > 2. People with cancer tend to have weakened immune systems (either directly due to the cancer itself or from its treatment). As a result, they are at risk for overwhelming, fulminant infection. In such circumstances, people can go from being apparently well to dead from infection in a matter of hours. > > 3. Some cancers spread to the brain. If they suddenly start bleeding, the effect is indistinguishable from having a stroke and, of course, can therefore be rapidly fatal. Melanoma has a particular tendency to do this. > > 4. Some cancers can erode into a blood vessel or into the lining of the heart (spread to the heart itself is very rare). If that happens, the person can bleed to death or suffer heart stoppage, respectively. In either case, though, death occurs suddenly. > > 5. Cancers frequently spread to the bone marrow and crowd out the normal cells found there. Since the bone marrow is where the various blood cells are manufactured, including the platelets which help clot the blood, a person affected in this way is at risk for sudden, massive hemorrhage (bleeding). Obviously, that can kill quickly, especially if the bleeding happens in the brain. This problem is common in people suffering from leukemia (cancer of the white blood cells). (and, just to be complete, [HERE](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=3061457) is a list of the various ways that cancer can kill you, both slowly and quickly) ---
**Author:** ![ChickenLegs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecc23a/32.png) [@ChickenLegs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChickenLegs)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cancer-can-kill-you-in-two-days/741625/23 "2015-12-30T00:27:07Z")
This guy died of pancreatic cancer 4 days after diagnosis. I personally know a lady whose husband died of the same thing. I forget the exact timing, but it was damned fast. Physical fitness guy, too. He ran a marathon, and month or so later was dead. > **[What makes pancreatic cancer so deadly?](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/experts-pancreatic-cancer-gene-upshaw/)** > > Last week, NFL great Gene Upshaw passed away suddenly from pancreatic cancer. Oncologist Allyson Ocean explains how the illness felled Upshaw only four days after doctors found it ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cancer-can-kill-you-in-two-days/741625/24 "2015-12-30T18:39:02Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > There might be a few viral or bacterial diseases that can kill you that fast, but I don’t know of any. Meningitis can kill that fast: “[Even when the disease is diagnosed early and adequate treatment is started, 5% to 10% of patients die, typically within 24 to 48 hours after the onset of symptoms](http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs141/en/)”. Historically the [flu of 1918](https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/influenza-epidemic/) could kill that fast too. ---
**Author:** ![apollonia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2bfe46/32.png) [@apollonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/apollonia)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cancer-can-kill-you-in-two-days/741625/25 "2015-12-30T18:47:15Z")
Cholera can kill within hours. Usually it takes more like a few days, but particularly bad strains can kill within a few hours of onset. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cancer-can-kill-you-in-two-days/741625/26 "2015-12-30T20:34:01Z")
My mother had small cell carcinoma. It is a relatively rare lung cancer that is essentially undetectable. The tumors it produces are visible but so small they don’t appear as tumors in X Rays or scans and are only id’ed as tumors after the fact. You generally get diagnosed once the cancer has spread to other organs (which is what happened in my Mother’s case). She was officially diagnosed with it on a Wednesday and passed away from it early the next Monday (this was after she had gotten a clean bill of health from her doctor not long before and had made a trip to the ER because she wasn’t feeling well a few days earlier but they sent her home). They estimated she had initially got it between four a and six weeks before the diagnosis. ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cancer-can-kill-you-in-two-days/741625/27 "2015-12-30T21:51:39Z")
Was just coming in to add that infections can definitely kill you that fast. I saw a healthy 29 year old go from walking into an ER with flu-like symptoms to brain dead in a couple of hours from meningococcal meningitis. Never underestimate gram negative bacteria. ---
**Author:** ![incidental](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/22d042/32.png) [@incidental](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/incidental)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cancer-can-kill-you-in-two-days/741625/28 "2015-12-30T22:08:20Z")
Sure - there are many infections that can be rapidly deadly. Viral hemorrhagic fevers, bacterial sepsis, necrotizing fasciitis, primary amebic meningoencephalitis, bacterial meningitis, rabies once it becomes symptomatic. There’s plenty of weird infections out there, or infections that present atypically, that can be deadly. Isn’t microbiology grand? Edit: I forgot pulmonary anthrax, some of the Clostridums…okay, I should stop. Sorry ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cancer-can-kill-you-in-two-days/741625/29 "2015-12-30T22:10:06Z")
My guess is he died from a combination of Cancer, other health problems, and decades of booze, speed and bad food. There’s no evidence that it was suicide, and there was at least one witness when he passed. > [@](#): > > A doctor visited early Monday. Ozzy Osbourne would be coming by that day or the next. Lemmy spent hours on the video-game console, as Rainbow owner Mikael Maglieri paid a visit. Then Lemmy nodded off and never woke up again. > > “Mikael called to say, ‘My God, he just died right in front of me,’” Singerman says. > **[Inside Lemmy's Last Days](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/lemmys-last-days-how-metal-legend-celebrated-70th-stared-down-cancer-52643/)** > > Motörhead manager Todd Singerman takes us inside Lemmy's final days, as he celebrated his 70th on the Sunset Strip and stared down a cancer diagnosis. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cancer-can-kill-you-in-two-days/741625/30 "2015-12-30T23:08:53Z")
Guess he really got pwned. Wonder what he was playing. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cancer-can-kill-you-in-two-days/741625/31 "2015-12-30T23:12:36Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Guess he really got pwned. Wonder what he was playing. Video Poker. ETA: At least that’s what I’ve read. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2015, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cancer-can-kill-you-in-two-days/741625/32 "2015-12-31T16:32:32Z")
Well, my dad never even knew he had cancer. He went in for surgery to remove some fluid around his heart. When they got in, they found the mass was cancer, not fluid. They tried to get a sample for biopsy, but the cancer tissue tore when they took a sample, and he was never able to come off life support before he died. Cancer can be sneaky. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2015, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cancer-can-kill-you-in-two-days/741625/33 "2015-12-31T23:26:01Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > [This article](http://m.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/motorhead-frontman-death-cancer-questioned-article-1.2479959), albeit from the NY Daily News (although quoting what seems to be a credible and verifiable source), says it’s extremely rare. The article states that it’s also odd that he would be released to go home in such a dire straight rather than to hospice care, although the patient’s wishes would be respected if going home was what he wanted to do. > > Another thing that has me leaning toward suicide is the one day delay attempted by the band’s official sources before his death was publicly announced, as though some time was desired to cobble together a reason other than suicide for public release. Many hospice patients stay at home, and in fact most hospice programs encourage this if it’s what the patient wants. “Home” can be defined as nursing home, jail, hobo camp, etc. The hospital where I used to work filled prescriptions for hospice patients, and one day, we were told that we would get a new one and then never got any additional paperwork, etc. We found out later that the patient died within a couple hours of being admitted to hospice! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2015, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cancer-can-kill-you-in-two-days/741625/34 "2015-12-31T23:45:55Z")
Both my parents died in hospice, and died at home as they wished. Ideally, you try to arrange for what the patient and/or family want and can cope with. If death is inevitable there’s no reason _not_ to go home if there’s nothing else to be done medically. ---
**Author:** ![Torontonian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/45deac/32.png) [@Torontonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torontonian)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2016, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cancer-can-kill-you-in-two-days/741625/35 "2016-01-01T00:54:57Z")
I would want to go with euthanasia and its legal where I live ---
**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, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cancer-can-kill-you-in-two-days/741625/36 "2016-01-01T00:57:13Z")
> [@Infovore](#): > > I was just reading the thread about the death of [Lemmy](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=779410), and the articles about it mention that he died of an “aggressive form” of cancer and he was only diagnosed two days prior to his death. > > What kind of cancer can kill you that fast? :eek: > > Now, obviously, I know he must have had it before it was diagnosed, but for whatever reason he didn’t actually find _out_ he had it until two days before he died. I was just curious about what flavors of the disease are that aggressive, to go from “not enough symptoms to make you get checked out” to “dead” in two days? He could have cancer and weak liver and came home from hospital and started drinking and may be even doing drugs making a weak liver worse. Many times when one has cancer you can’t do drugs or drink. Drinking is hard on your body so are drugs like meth or smoking crack and if he had cancer and weak liver and did this it will make liver worse. ---
**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, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cancer-can-kill-you-in-two-days/741625/37 "2016-01-01T01:03:12Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > Well, my dad never even knew he had cancer. He went in for surgery to remove some fluid around his heart. When they got in, they found the mass was cancer, not fluid. They tried to get a sample for biopsy, but the cancer tissue tore when they took a sample, and he was never able to come off life support before he died. > > Cancer can be sneaky. He should gone to a bigger hospital with top surgeons that could done surgery to remove the tumor. When you have big tumor you need to find top surgeons that have the training and experience removing large tumors. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2016, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cancer-can-kill-you-in-two-days/741625/38 "2016-01-01T01:58:18Z")
> [@sweat209](#): > > He should gone to a bigger hospital with top surgeons that could done surgery to remove the tumor. > > When you have big tumor you need to find top surgeons that have the training and experience removing large tumors. I won’t argue that more experienced surgeons tend to have better outcomes than less experienced ones. But your statement that “top surgeons” could have removed the tumor is quite misleading and actually unfounded. Indeed, surgery is not the issue in this type of situation (and I mean no disrespect to **scabpicker** ). As I noted in post#22 above, under point#4, one way for a cancer to kill someone quickly is to spread to the lining of the heart (i.e. to the pericardium) or, more precisely, to the space between the heart and its lining (i.e. [pericardial effusion](http://www.cardiachealth.org/sites/default/files/2011/Pericardial%20effusion.jpg)). Once there are malignant cells in the pericardial space, the prognosis is poor. Surgery is irrelevant in such situations for two reasons: 1. Once you’ve got spread beyond the primary site of a tumor (i.e. metastases), removal of the primary tumor, generally speaking, cannot be curative. So, “top surgeon” or not, the outcome is unlikely to be good. 2. Removal of fluid around the heart is not really “surgery”. It can be done at the bedside, and even by internists. [The success rate for this form fluid removal is 99 percent](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0735109715043752) suggesting that ‘surgical skill’ doesn’t make much of a difference. [What’s involved is inserting a needle](http://biology-forums.com/gallery/14755_01_10_12_7_52_55_9200362.jpeg) through the skin until it enters the fluid-filled space and then simply aspirating (sucking out) the tumor-cell-containing fluid. Surgical skill is not really relevant; ‘anyone’ can do it. ---
**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, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cancer-can-kill-you-in-two-days/741625/39 "2016-01-01T02:39:00Z")
> [@](#): > > 1. Once you’ve got spread beyond the primary site of a tumor (i.e. metastases), removal of the primary tumor, generally speaking, cannot be curative. So, “top surgeon” or not, the outcome is unlikely to be good. Why is that the case? Is the surgery to hard on your body? They would have to really open you up if the tumor is that big or the tumor spread? That most surgeons are not comfortable to do surgery on a large tumor because they would have to really open you up and it would be hard on your body to really open you up? > [@](#): > > 1. Once you’ve got spread beyond the primary site of a tumor (i.e. metastases), removal of the primary tumor, generally speaking, cannot be curative. So, “top surgeon” or not, the outcome is unlikely to be good. What about just removing part of the tumor? Than next month do surgery again and remove other part? If removing all of it would requiring major surgery that could kill you? ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2016, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cancer-can-kill-you-in-two-days/741625/40 "2016-01-01T02:45:30Z")
I think some forms of bacterial pneumonia can blow up over the course of a few hours. The sufferer just cannot get warm, and if they make it to a hospital they end up packed in ice to bring the fever down. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cancer-can-kill-you-in-two-days/741625.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-cancer-can-kill-you-in-two-days/741625.md?page=3)