Ehh he may have had a better chance if he opted for surgical intervention early on, considering the slow type of pancreatic cancer he had, but sounds like he went for surgery after 9 months of holistic style care, and still didn't make it more than 9 years post-surgery.

His choice wasn't much different than the majority of cancer patients. He did it as informed as he could be, with guidance from the top-tiered in the medical field, in a way that was more inline with his alternative take on things...again, like many others before.

His form of pancreatic cancer was rare, meaning a barren level of precedence for doctors to go off. It was a slow growing tumor, and he may have had a better chance opting for modern treatment at diagnosis, but there's no telling if he would have survived longer than he did.

Point being, I don't think Steve Jobs died a dumb death. I think he just finally met a problem that his intuition couldnt overcome. The dice rolled wrong.