2. Peripheral Neuropathy

Having causes that range from genetic to metabolic and toxic, Peripheral Neuropathy is a disease which affects healthy nerve function. There are almost as many ways to treat it as there are potential causes, which is a blessing and a curse to those afflicted. Frequently, it’s difficult to determine the exact cause, which hinders the ability to find an exact treatment, leaving patients to grapple with acute and occasionally aggressive needle-type pain throughout the affected region. As with most of the previous entries, it can be managed, but there is no cure.

1. Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic Cancer takes the top spot on this list for a number of reasons. Not only is it devastating to receive the diagnosis, it’s devastating to have to break the news to your loved ones who are then also shocked and utterly dismayed. The physical and emotional pain associated with having and treating cancer is incredibly taxing and the treatment occasionally kills the patient more quickly than the cancer itself would have. Pancreatic Cancer has the highest mortality rate of all known cancers with only 7% of those diagnosed still alive five years after treatment. It’s this particular cancer which has robbed the world of actors such as Patrick Swayze, Joan Crawford, and Donna Reed, as well as Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs, astronaut Sally Ride, and opera singer Luciano Pavarotti. All cancers, their respective treatments, and the end-stages are the most agonizing forms of torture because the effects are felt by everyone in the patient’s life. It probably goes without saying that there is currently no magical antidote, but perhaps one day, as we hope for all other terrible diseases, science or nature will find that elusive cure.

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