Yes, it's awful. I'm not a medic but know that cancer cannot be cured, in some cases, because it is just so chaotic in nature. It starts from a single mutation, which is essentially random. Then as it spreads it continues to mutate. Which makes it really hard to treat with chemo. Every single cell has to be eliminated. Not easy if all the cells are mutating chaotically, making them all different to one another. We know much more about cancer, compared to forty years ago. But this has given us the knowledge that, as a foe, it is much tougher adversary than anyone could have imagined forty years ago.

Pancreatic cancer is particularly deadly because symptoms often only start late. So when it is diagnosed, it has often spread.

There have been success stories. With most forms of testicular cancer, for example, or many childhood leukaemias. These were deadly forty years ago, but will usually be cured today. But this did not help your poor cousin, of course.