what cancer treatment did steve jobs use

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What treatment did Steve Jobs have for his cancer?

He went for an experimental treatment in Switzerland in 2009, which involves using a radioactive isotope to attack the faulty hormone-producing cells of the body. These treatments may well have extended his life, but nine months is a long time to wait in cancer time.

What stage cancer did Steve Jobs have?

Jobs had a rare form of the cancer, known as neuroendocrine cancer, which grows more slowly and is easier to treat, explains Leonard Saltz, acting chief of the gastrointestinal oncology service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

How long did Steve Jobs have pancreatic cancer?

Jobs survived eight years before dying of the disease on Oct. 5, 2011. The five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer is only 10%. Since PNETs are so uncommon, treatment options are not yet well-defined.

What did Steve do when he was diagnosed with cancer in 2003?

After Steve Jobs was diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer in 2003, he allegedly delayed surgery to remove the tumor — the recommended treatment — for nine months. During that interim period, he attempted to treat his cancer with alternative medicine, including a special diet, according to news reports.

Was Steve Jobs pancreatic cancer curable?

But as Jobs later revealed, he had an unusual form of pancreatic cancer known as a neuroendocrine tumor or islet cell carcinoma. In 2004, nine months after his diagnosis, Jobs underwent surgery to remove the tumor.

Is the Whipple procedure worth it?

Typically, the Whipple procedure is a good option for patients whose cancer is confined to the pancreas or the small area adjacent to it, and who are in good enough health to reasonably anticipate that they will fully recover.

What caused Patrick Swayze to get pancreatic cancer?

The cause of pancreatic cancer is unknown, but several risk factors have been identified. Swayze, known to be a heavy smoker, believed that smoking had something to do with his cancer. Age: Most people with pancreatic cancer are older than 45.

Are there warning signs of pancreatic cancer?

When symptoms of a pancreatic tumor first appear, they most commonly include jaundice, or a yellowing of the skin and the whites of the eyes, which is caused by an excess of bilirubin—a dark, yellow-brown substance made by the liver. Sudden weight loss is also a common early warning sign of pancreatic cancer.

What kind of pancreatic cancer did Patrick Swayze have?

Swayze was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer in early 2008. After more than a year of treatment which included chemotherapy and an experimental drug trial, Swayze announced his cancer had metastasized to his liver.

What is the average life expectancy after a Whipple procedure?

Patients managed with Whipple resection had a median survival of 16.3 months (mean, 25 months); four patients (5.3%) died within 30 days, and seven (9.3%) within 90 days. Median survival of patients with positive margins was 13.9 months, compared with 20.6 months for those with clear margins (Box 3).

What is the survival rate of Whipple surgery?

The survival rate for a Whipple procedure has improved a lot in the last few decades. Thirty years ago between 5% and 15% of people who went through the Whipple procedure died from complications. Now the mortality rate is about 1% to 3%.

How long do you live with pancreatic cancer stage 4?

Stage IV Prognosis Stage IV pancreatic cancer has a five-year survival rate of 1 percent. The average patient diagnosed with late-stage pancreatic cancer will live for about 1 year after diagnosis.

What is Steve Jobs' cancer?

Jobs learned in 2003 that he had an extremely rare form of this cancer, an islet-cell neuroendocrine tumor. As the name implies, it arises from islet cells, the specialized factories within the pancreas that produce and secrete insulin, which cells need in order to take in glucose from the food we eat.

When did Steve Jobs get his tumor removed?

He reportedly spent nine months on “alternative therapies,” including what Fortune called “ a special diet .” But when a scan showed that the original tumor had grown, he finally had it removed on July 31, 2004, at Stanford University Medical Clinic. In emails to Apple employees immediately after, Jobs said his form of cancer “can be cured by surgical removal if diagnosed in time (mine was),” and told his colleagues, “I will be recuperating during the month of August, and expect to return to work in September.” Despite the delay in having the surgery, Jobs’s upbeat report was not unrealistic: most patients diagnosed with neuroendocrine tumors in the pancreas live at least another 10 years.

How long does it take for liver to heal from metastasis?

If there are spots of metastasis in the liver, it’s better just to remove them. Often, that can let you stay ahead of the disease for another eight to 10 years .” (The liver is one of the few human organs that regenerates, so having pieces removed usually does not impair function.)

What side of the pancreas did Steve Jobs have surgery on?

The surgery removes the right side of the pancreas, the gallbladder, and parts of the stomach, bile duct, and small intestine. The fact that so much more than the pancreas itself had to be removed suggests that Jobs’s cancer had spread beyond the pancreas. The cancer might have already spread by the time it was discovered in 2003, ...

How many people survived Whipple surgery?

Based on 31 cases, including three patients who had a Whipple procedure similar to Jobs’s, they calculated that 59 percent of patients survived at least one year, 47 percent were alive at three years, and 36 percent survived five years or more.

Did Steve Jobs get cured?

Alternatively, the cancer could have spread during the nine months that Jobs was experimenting with nonstandard therapies. Within five years, it was clear that Jobs was not cured. He underwent a liver transplant at Methodist University Hospital in Memphis in 2009.

Did Steve Jobs have pancreatic cancer?

Steve Jobs was right to be optimistic when, in 2004, he announced that he had cancer in his pancreas. Although cancer of the pancreas has a terrible prognosis—half of all patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer die within 10 months of the diagnosis; half of those in whom it has metastasized die within six months—cancer in ...

What cancer did Steve Jobs have?

Steve Jobs's cancer. January 01, 2012. Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors are becoming more common (the bad news) and also more treatable (the good news). Pancreatic cancer is a dreaded and especially deadly type of cancer. About 44,000 Americans will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer this year, accounting for approximately 3% ...

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What treatments did Steve Jobs use?

Many journalists mentioned and even focused on Jobs’ initial decision to forego conventional treatments and instead use complementary and alternative medical (CAM) therapies, including acupuncture, botanicals , and dietary changes (Grady, 2011). This was chronicled in his biography and corroborated via interviews with his friends and colleagues (Isaacson, 2011). However, what many journalists failed to note is that the evidence supporting any specific conventional treatment approach (surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy) for GEP-NETs comprises a slim literature, and the evidence base for use of CAM therapeutic approaches for GEP-NETs is virtually non-existent. After a delay of nine months after diagnosis, in 2004, Jobs opted for surgery. He died 7 years later.

How did Steve Jobs die?

The untimely death of Steve Jobs from pancreatic cancer at the age of 56 in October 2011 was highly publicized (Kane and Fowler, 2011; Markoff, 2011). Jobs was one of two founders of Apple computers and is credited for revolutionizing personal computing. At the time of his diagnosis in 2003, Jobs did what most cancer patients do: he made a decision on how to approach his treatment based on the best evidence available to him at the time. Jobs was diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer , called an islet cell tumor or gasteroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumor (GEP-NET), which is a different form of pancreatic cancer than the highly aggressive and often rapidly fatal pancreatic adenocarcinoma. GEP-NETs are slow growing tumors that have the potential to be cured surgically if the tumor is removed prior to metastasis. There are limited clinical trial data on GEP-NETs and highly effective chemotherapy agents to treat GEP-NETs have not been identified. In the face of medical uncertainty at the time of his diagnosis, Jobs still had to make a decision on how to proceed.

What can we learn from Steve Jobs?

So, what can we learn from Steve Jobs about CAM? Jobs was a highly intelligent, extremely wealthy, and very well-connected man. He had access to the world’s best and brightest medical advisors and had no financial barriers to receiving any treatment. It can be assumed that Jobs and his physicians sought out the best available medical evidence to guide the management of his disease. Jobs, just like anyone else with his diagnosis, would have benefited from more rigorous basic science, more clinical trials with the option of participating in a trial, and more observational research examining the effects of both conventional and CAM therapies on cancer outcomes, such as studying the effects of radical dietary changes. If Jobs and his clinicians had had more information to guide his treatment, perhaps he would have made different decisions along the way that could have influenced his outcomes. Indeed, Jobs is not alone is his use of CAM therapies after a cancer diagnosis. An estimated 43–67% of US cancer patients use CAM therapies after a cancer diagnosis and the effects of many of these therapies are poorly understood (Mao et al., 2011). Individuals use CAM therapies after a cancer diagnosis for a variety of reasons: to treat cancer without the use of conventional treatments (this is called “alternative medicine”), to treat cancer in concert with conventional treatments (this is called “complementary or integrative medicine”), to prevent or treat side effects of treatment, to prevent and treat other co-morbidities, and to promote and/or maintain general wellness. Most are motivated by the notion that CAM is “natural” and therefore devoid of risk (Ernst and Hung, 2011). This assumption may, however, not always be correct (Ernst, 2011).

Did Steve Jobs use CAM?

However, the details of Jobs’ diagnosis and specific treatments received, both conventional and unconventional, have not been made public. Therefore, we cannot comment on whether or not he made the best decisions on his cancer treatment, nor can we comment on whether he would have had different outcomes had he chosen a different treatment approach. It is unknown whether Jobs’ outcomes would have been different if he had pursued surgery at the time of his diagnosis, or if had followed a specific chemotherapy protocol. And it is unknown how effective any of his acupuncture, botanical and dietary approaches may have been before or after his surgery.

What type of cancer did Steve Jobs have?

Jobs had a neuroendocrine tumor, a relatively rare type of pancreatic cancer, sometimes curable by early surgery (it is not as deadly or aggressive as the most common form of pancreatic cancer).

What impressed me most about cancer treatment?

What impressed me most is that treatment was supervised by fully trained oncologists in an academic medical center. Cancer centers in the United States claiming to offer “integrative” care tend to stick to the safest complementary services – massage, stress reduction, counseling.

What is the best treatment for cancer?

All cancer patients there get appropriate surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy as well as sophisticated herbal therapy designed to reduce toxicity and increase the efficacy of those treatments, strengthen the body’s defenses against cancer, and enhance quality of life.

Can you eat whatever you want while oncology?

American oncologists commonly tell patients to avoid all dietary supplements and natural remedies while undergoing treatment and to eat whatever they want. That’s not good enough. If cancer is confined to one part of the body and is accessible, surgery usually is curative, and it would be foolish not to use it.

What type of cancer did Steve Jobs have?

However, Jobs was reported to have a form of pancreatic cancer called a neuroendocrine tumor. This type is less lethal than the most common form of pancreatic cancer, an adenocarcinoma. Neuroendocrine tumors grow more slowly than adenocarcinomas.

How long did Steve Jobs wait to get rid of pancreatic cancer?

After Steve Jobs was diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer in 2003, he allegedly delayed surgery to remove the tumor — the recommended treatment — for nine months. During that interim period, he attempted to treat his cancer with alternative medicine, including a special diet, according to news reports.

How long did Steve Jobs live after he was diagnosed?

Some experts say that, if anything, use of alternative medicine approaches may have helped Jobs' overall health. Jobs lived 8 years after his diagnosis. The average life expectancy for someone with a metastatic neuroendocrine tumor is about two years, according to PCAN. (It remains unclear whether Jobs' cancer was metastatic when he was diagnosed.)

What are the treatments for cancer?

Therapies such as mediation, acupuncture and exercise may be used in conjunction with standard cancer treatments in order improve health and reduce the side effects treatments, which can include fatigue, chronic pain and problems with sleep, Mehta said.

Can alternative medicine help cancer patients?

Pass it on: Alternative medicine therapies may improve health for those with cancer, but they should always be used in conjunction with standard medical care.

What cancer did Steve Jobs have?

Jobs had a rare form of the cancer, known as neuroendocrine cancer, which grows more slowly and is easier to treat, explains Leonard Saltz, acting chief of the gastrointestinal oncology service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. "Survival for many years or even decades with endocrine cancer is not surprising.".

How did Steve Jobs die?

Announced Wednesday, Jobs's death from "complication s of pancreatic cancer" only hints at the vast complexity of the disease to which he succumbed at the age of 56. Jobs joined recently announced Nobel Prize winner Ralph Steinman, actor Patrick Swayze and football great Gene Upshaw as the latest bold-faced name to die from this aggressive ...

What is the name of the cancer that Steinman had?

The vast majority of those cancers—some 95 percent—are known as adenocarcinomas , the sort that Steinman had. Jobs's form, known as pancreatic neuroendrocrine tumor (pNET), makes up the small fraction of other pancreatic cancer sufferers.

What is the mainstay of Steinman's treatment?

The mainstay is the chemo drug gemcitabine (Gemzar), which is one of the treatments Steinman received. In trials, some patients saw no benefit, but for a minority, it extended life by as long as a few years, suggesting that an essential molecular difference exists in their tumors.

What is the treatment for endocrine cancer?

Endocrine cancer, the variety Jobs had, is treated with a different variety of chemotherapy drugs. Two new drugs for this type were just approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) earlier this year. Everolimus (sold as Afinitor) works by blocking the mTOR kinase target to alter cellular signaling and was approved in May. Sunitinib (sold as Sutent) blocks a vascular endothelial growth factor. "Neither is a cure—neither is a wonder drug for the disease," Saltz says. "Each provides some modest benefit. "

Did Steve Jobs beat the odds?

The Puzzle of Pancreatic Cancer: How Steve Jobs Did Not Beat the Odds—but Nobel Winner Ralph Steinman Did. Despite having the same name, the diseases that killed Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and 2011 Nobel laureate Ralph Steinman are different kinds of cancer. Researchers are looking for new ways to diagnose and treat both.

Why did Steve Jobs get a liver transplant?

In 2009 Jobs underwent a liver transplant to fight off the spread of his cancer. Says Reuters, “The procedure is experimental and is fraught with complications.” You can bet on that. According to a pancreatic disease specialist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, the most serious complication after Jobs’ liver transplant would have been further spread of the cancer.

What is the tragedy of cancer?

The tragedy is that most people wreck their bodies with chemotherapy, surgery and radiation. Only when those treatments have failed and they’ve been told to go to hospice do they finally give a thought to alternatives.

Why do people take immunosuppressants after transplant?

After any kind of transplant, the patient has to take immunosuppressant drugs to prevent his or her immune system from rejecting the new organ as a foreign invader (because that’s what it is; the immune system isn’t stupid; it’s one of the most intelligent parts of the body. ) The last thing a cancer patient needs is a suppressed immune system.

How long does it take for cancer to return after liver transplant?

This doctor, Simon Lo, said that three-quarters of patients who got a liver transplant as part of their cancer treatment saw the cancer sneak back within two to five years. The cancer can return not only to the liver but to other parts of the body.

How many revolutions does a job deserve?

Jobs deserves part or all of the credit for at least five or six major business and communications revolutions while most so-called “geniuses” in the business world can claim — maybe — one such achievement on their resumés. Usually less than one.

What would happen if alternative medicine failed?

If an alternative treatment failed three times out of four it would be denounced as quackery and everyone connected with it would be fined, prosecuted, suffer the loss of their medical licenses and even be sent to prison. But in conventional medicine a 75 percent failure rate is all in a day’s work. “Get over it, dude. Stuff happens. Tell me where the memorial service is going to be held, I’ll send some flowers.”

Is cancer a preventable disease?

One thing we’ve learned here at Cancer Defeated in the last six years is that cancer is a highly preventable and treatable disease. We have a good idea of WHY people get it and a good idea of HOW you can get rid of it — even in advanced cases. One of our experts says, “Of all the degenerative diseases of aging — heart disease, diabetes, arthritis — cancer is actually the easiest to reverse.”