The most dangerous thing about pancreatic cancer is not how fast it spreads; it is how quietly it starts. By the time it’s detected, it is often already advanced, making it one of the deadliest cancers.
Thus, early detection is crucial in pancreatic cancer. Patients diagnosed at the earliest stage can have a five-year survival rate of more than 80 percent. However, survival drops to 44 percent when the tumor has spread but remains confined to the pancreas and to just 3 percent once the cancer has spread distantly.
