fatality

fa·tal·i·ty (f-tl-t, f-)

n.

1. A death resulting from an accident or disaster.

2. One that is killed as a result of such an occurrence.

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fatality

[fātal′itē]

Etymology: L, fatalis, preordained

1 an individual case of death.

2 a condition, disease, accident, or disaster resulting in death.

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fatality

Public health Death; a death, usually understood to be accidental in nature. See Occupational fatality.

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Patient discussion about fatality.

Q. which is the most fatal cancer type?

A. pancreatic cancer is more fatal than the lung cancer, but the former is much rarer than the letter. This makes the lung cancer the number one cancer responsible for fatalities in the US.

Q. Is arthritis a dangerous illness? Is it fatal? My girlfriend was diagnosed with arthritis 3 days ago and I'm really scared. need to know some details...

A. Generally arthritis is not a fatal disease. It may cause severe discomfort and disability in the long term, and the complications that involove organs other than the joints are considered limited. It depends which kind of arthritis, but for example rheumatoid arthritis is known to have lung and heart involvement with serious progressive disease, however this is definately not the majority and only in the very long run.

Q. are going to a time, in the future , when cancer will not be fatal any more? will it be more treatable?

A. Yes, and no. Cancer isn't absolutely lethal already today - usually early stages of cancer are curable (usually through surgery), and hematological cancers (cancer of the blood and immune system, e.g. leukemia and lymphoma) are curable with drugs and bone marrow transplantation. Invasive stages of cancer are usually not curable today, but the main target of cancer research today is to turn cancer into a chronic disease, just as was done to AIDS - a disease that can't be cured but can be tolerated for long periods, like diabetes.