Pancreatic Cancer or Diabetes - Some Choice! Pancreatic cancer is such a deadly disease that some high-risk patients will have the pancreas removed as a preventive measure. But without a pancreas, the organ that produces insulin, a patient must live with diabetes and a lifetime of insulin injections. The trade-off, however, may be worth it. Pancreatic cancer cells can mutate several times and often resist radiation and chemotherapy. The disease has an overall survival rate of less than 4 percent, with most patients dying within 5 years. Given the high mortality rate and few treatment options, it's no wonder that patients choose to live with diabetes (and without a pancreas) rather than risk developing the deadly cancer.