The type Steve had was an "islet cell neuroendocrine" tumor, a somewhat less aggressive type that is more responsive to early treatment. When Mr. Jobs was first diagnosed in 2003, he chose to pursue alternative therapies, including acupuncture, herbal, diet and fruit juice therapy and spiritual consultations.
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What alternative treatment did Steve Jobs have for cancer?
According to Steve Jobs' biographer, Walter Isaacson, the Apple mastermind eventually came to regret the decision he had made years earlier to reject potentially life-saving surgery in favor of alternative treatments like acupuncture, dietary supplements and juices.
Did Steve Jobs seek cancer treatment?
REUTERS - Apple Inc co-founder Steve Jobs refused potentially life-saving cancer surgery for nine months, shrugging off his family's protests and opting instead for alternative medicine, according to the tech visionary's biographer.
Could Steve Jobs have been cured?
Cancer experts say Apple's former CEO Steve Jobs could still be alive had he had surgery earlier.
What are alternative methods for treatment of cancer?
How can alternative medicine help people with cancer?If you're experiencing:Then consider trying:FatigueExercise, massage, relaxation techniques, yogaNausea and vomitingAcupuncture, aromatherapy, hypnosis, music therapyPainAcupuncture, aromatherapy, hypnosis, massage, music therapy3 more rows
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.
How long can you live with a neuroendocrine tumor?
The 5-year survival rate for people with a GI tract NET that has not spread to other parts of the body from where it started is 97%. If the tumor has spread to nearby tissue or the regional lymph nodes, the 5-year survival rate is 95%. If the tumor has spread to distant areas of the body, the survival rate is 67%.
Did Steve Jobs use alternative medicine?
Jobs was first diagnosed in 2003, he chose to pursue alternative therapies, including acupuncture, herbal, diet and fruit juice therapy and spiritual consultations. Many of these therapies he found on the Internet.
Can stress cause neuroendocrine tumors?
The neuroendocrine mechanisms of chronic stress. Chronic stress produces stress hormones during the activation of the neuroendocrine system (hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis) and the sympathetic nervous system, which can promote tumor development and regulate the tumor microenvironment.
What is the survival rate of Whipple surgery?
Overall, the five-year survival rate after a Whipple procedure is about 20 to 25%. Even if the procedure successfully removes the visible tumor, it's possible that some cancer cells have already spread elsewhere in the body, where they can form new tumors and eventually cause death.
Can you get rid of cancer without chemo?
We can treat cancer without delivering chemotherapy or radiation to kill the cancer or performing surgery to get rid of the tumor.” Researchers at UCSF and elsewhere have identified cell receptors, such as CTLA-4 and PD-1, which act as a brake on the immune system, limiting its response.
How do you stop cancer cells from growing naturally?
Consider these cancer-prevention tips.Don't use tobacco. Using any type of tobacco puts you on a collision course with cancer. ... Eat a healthy diet. ... Maintain a healthy weight and be physically active. ... Protect yourself from the sun. ... Get vaccinated. ... Avoid risky behaviors. ... Get regular medical care.
Can you survive cancer without chemo?
It found that low-risk patients did well without chemotherapy. That study showed the test could select a cohort of patients with a 99 percent chance of five-year survival without distant metastasis. For those women, the risks of chemotherapy aren't justifiable.
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.
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, ...
Why do people need liver transplants?
But removing the liver because it has become riddled with tumors that originated elsewhere is rare.
Why are liver transplants abandoned?
Indeed, liver transplants for metastatic cancer “have been largely abandoned,” says Columbia’s Chabot, because the immune-suppressing, anti-rejection drugs “lead to such a high recurrence rate. If there are spots of metastasis in the liver, it’s better just to remove them.
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.)
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.
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.
Is acupuncture part of cancer treatment?
Acupuncture and nutrition are also part of the integrative cancer treatment available. After seeing the large number of successful outcomes there, I was saddened that few American cancer patients have access to this kind of care.
What was Steve Jobs' downfall?
Jobs’ “magical thinking” may have defined his business brilliance, but it could have been his downfall in his fight against cancer. According to Steve Jobs ’ biographer, Walter Isaacson, the Apple mastermind eventually came to regret the decision he had made years earlier to reject potentially life-saving surgery in favor ...
Where did Steve Jobs study Buddhism?
Jobs had spent time studying Buddhism in India, and he felt it served him in his work. “The main thing I've learned is intuition, that the people in India are not just pure rational thinkers, that the great spiritual ones also have an intuition.”.
What is the most insidious cancer?
Pancreatic cancer is one of the most insidious forms of cancer, and has few survivors. Isaacson says Jobs started talking about an afterlife more and more towards the end. On one of the interview recordings, Jobs says, “Maybe it’s ’cause I want to believe in an afterlife. That when you die, it doesn’t just all disappear.
Did Steve Jobs have cancer?
Though he ultimately embraced the surgery and sought out cutting-edge experimental methods, they were not enough to save him. Jobs’ cancer had been discovered by chance during a CT scan in 2003 to look for kidney stones, during which doctors saw a "shadow” on his pancreas.
Did Steve Jobs have a liver transplant?
He had an under-the-radar liver transplant and began putting a lot of energy into researching the most sophisticated experimental methods, making a complete about-face from how he began his treatment years before. According to the New York Times, Jobs was one of the few people in the world to have his genome sequenced.
Who is Andrew Weil?
Editor’s Note: Andrew Weil is the director of the of the integrative medicine program at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, and Professor of Medicine and Public Health, author of 8 Weeks to Optimum Health, Healthy Aging, and the forthcoming Spontaneous Happiness. He co-edited, with Donald Abrams, MD, a textbook of Integrative Oncology published by Oxford University Press.
Did Steve Jobs have cancer?
Steve Jobs had a long run with a rare form of cancer (a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor) that is sometimes curable by early surgery. While I was not his physician and don’t have access to the details of his illness or its treatment, assertions that his use of alternative medicine shortened his life strike me as uninformed. No one knows how long he would have survived or what his quality of life would have been had he opted for immediate surgery and used only conventional treatment.
What kind of cancer did Steve Jobs have?
Jobs had a rare form of pancreatic cancer known as pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor (pNET).
Who is Jessica Wapner?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR (S) Jessica Wapner is a science writer and author of The Philadelphia Chromosome: A Genetic Mystery, a Lethal Cancer, and the Improbable Invention of a Lifesaving Treatment (The Experiment, 2014). Credit: Nick Higgins.
Can juice fasts cause cancer?
Still, at least one treatment embraced by some in the alternative care community, namely juice fasts, can be counterproductive for cancer patients, says Donald Abrams of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (U.C.S.F.).
Does acupuncture help with tumors?
But although it may have contributed to overall well-being, acupuncture is unlikely to have had an impact on the tumor itself. "It is not enough to change the course of the disease," says Lowell Kobrin, a medical doctor who now focuses on acupuncture and herbal medicine at Northbend Medical Center in Coos Bay, Ore.