IT’S HARD TO BEAT PANCREATIC CANCER

Alex Trebek ended his somber announcement Wednesday that he has Stage 4 pancreatic cancer with a vow. “I’m going to fight this,” said the beloved “Jeopardy!” game show host. “I plan to beat the low survival-rate statistics for this disease.” Why it matters

But exactly how hard is it to beat pancreatic cancer? The answer: Very hard. Pancreatic cancer has the highest mortality rate of all major cancers.

The National Cancer Institute tracked patients’ survival rates from the time of diagnosis and found that by the five-year mark, only 9 percent of patients remained alive.

In 2016, the disease became the third-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States, overtaking breast cancer, and it is expected to become the second-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the country by 2020, according to the Hirshberg Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research.

What it means

What makes pancreatic cancer particularly deadly and difficult to treat is that the disease is often diagnosed too late. Tumors in the pancreas often don’t exhibit major symptoms until the cancer has already reached advanced stages.

Trebek’s diagnosis fits the disease’s profile. It almost always afflicts patients after age 45, with 71 being the average age of diagnosis. One of the earliest symptoms is pain in the back or stomach. Other symptoms are jaundice, nausea and bloating.

What’s next

In 2019, more than 56,000 Americans are expected to get the diagnosis, according to the American Cancer Society, and more than 45,000 will die of it.

The disease is one of the few cancers for which survival has not improved substantially over the past four decades.

EMMA MCINTYRE / GETTY IMAGES 2017 Alex Trebek’s diagnosis fits the pancreatic cancer profile. It almost always afflicts patients after 45, with 71 being the average age of diagnosis.