Kevin Mitnick dead at 59

by **Devlin** » Thu Jul 20, 2023 7:00 am

I know some of you will remember the name of Kevin Mitnick. For those who do not, famous old school hacker who was the FBI most wanted list. He got caught, did his time, wrote some books and a few other things.

Free Kevin

https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/las-vegas-nv/kevin-mitnick-11371668?s=09

by **Kurt** » Thu Jul 20, 2023 1:22 pm

Never knew him but we had mutual friends and they are pretty bummed now.

The thing is that cancer treatment is so good now that though we still die from cancer, its not like just a few years ago where it is drawn out and painful or in the case of pancreatic cancer when you are dead within 2 to 4 weeks. Apparently you go along normally with cancer and then suddenly you die from it.

So even though they knew he was sick, they did not expect it.

by **Tarkan** » Wed Aug 16, 2023 1:28 pm

Kurt wrote:Never knew him but we had mutual friends and they are pretty bummed now.

The thing is that cancer treatment is so good now that though we still die from cancer, its not like just a few years ago where it is drawn out and painful or in the case of pancreatic cancer when you are dead within 2 to 4 weeks. Apparently you go along normally with cancer and then suddenly you die from it.

So even though they knew he was sick, they did not expect it.

No, pancreatic cancer still kills you pretty fucking quickly.

My dad made it 8 months after diagnosis back in 2012.

Father of a family friend made it about 2 weeks after diagnosis last year.

Over the last 80ish years, the life expectancy for a Stage 4 diagnosis has gone up by about a month. Which is to say, from about 2 months to 3 months.

A lot of the adenocarcinomas have proven fairly resistant to treatment (esophageal, pancreatic, melanoma).

Where cancer treatment has made some good strides is with the CAR-T treatment and blood cancers (e.g., leukemia, particularly pediatric leukemia).

by **Kurt** » Thu Aug 17, 2023 2:58 am

Either way it sucks.

One side of my family (cousins in Norway) are prone to it. The older generation that got it were dead within two weeks of diagnosis and those closer to my age live for about a year.

by **el3so** » Thu Aug 17, 2023 11:32 pm

https://gwern.net/doc/rotten.com/librar ... index.html
Time flies.

Tarkan wrote:Over the last 80ish years, the life expectancy for a Stage 4 diagnosis has gone up by about a month.

I don't care about big pharma unless it makes me money and the sweet Lord and lucky genes have spared me from knowing many people with cancer (touches wood) but stage 4 is aggressive and in a location they can't take out so the ultimate bad news, no?

An extra month could be a world of difference. Kids growing up that wouldn't have had a chance a lot less than 80 years ago if it were 4 weeks difference but at the start instead of the end.