PO'd by a PSA

Have you seen the commercial encouraging people that there continually are new developments in fighting cancer and more survivors? That's all well and good, but it's also crap. Optimism is fine, but so is realism. For every survivor, how many people succumb? For every "easy" to detect cancer (breast, testicular, skin), how many cases of "hidden" types are there?

Luciano Pavarotti recently died of pancreatic cancer, the same type which killed my dad. First, it's hard to detect. Second, it's even more difficult to treat. Mr. Pavarotti survived a year after his diagnosis. My dad had two months. Yeah, I'm bitter, but I really mean it when I say that I hope Mrs. Pavarotti enjoyed that last year with her husband.