But Jobs refused surgery after diagnosis and for nine months after, favoring instead dietary treatments and other alternative methods. Isaacson says that when he asked Jobs why he had resisted it, Jobs said “I didn't want my body to be opened...I didn't want to be violated in that way.”
Why did Steve Jobs refuse to have surgery?
· But Jobs refused surgery after diagnosis and for nine months after, favoring instead dietary treatments and other alternative methods. Isaacson says that when he asked Jobs why he had resisted it,...
What if Steve Jobs didn’t get chemotherapy?
· Oct. 20, 2011 — -- Steve Jobs, the visionary Apple co-founder who died earlier this month at 56, admitted to biographer Walter Isaacson that for nine months he refused to undergo surgery for his pancreatic cancer -- a decision he later regretted as his health declined.
Did Steve Jobs'choice of treatments shorten his life?
· 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 …
What kind of brain tumor did Steve Jobs have?
· 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 …
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· Within five years, it was clear that Jobs was not cured. He underwent a liver transplant at Methodist University Hospital in Memphis in 2009. That strongly suggests the …
Did Steve Jobs deny 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.
Why did Steve Jobs not treat his cancer?
Steve Jobs told his biographer, Walter Isaacson, that he put off surgery for pancreatic cancer for nine months, and later regretted it. Jobs was a believer in alternative medicine, and told Isaacson he didn't want his body opened.
What alternative medicine did Steve Jobs try?
Jobs was first diagnosed in 2003, he chose to pursue alternative therapies, including acupuncture, herbal, diet and fruit juice therapy and spiritual consultations.
What was the disease Steve Jobs was suffering from?
Steve Jobs was a rare case, right down to his death. Announced Wednesday, Jobs's death from "complications of pancreatic cancer" only hints at the vast complexity of the disease to which he succumbed at the age of 56.
What causes pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor?
It's not clear what causes most pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors occur when hormone-producing cells in the pancreas (islet cells) develop changes (mutations) in their DNA — the material that provides instructions for every chemical process in your body.
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.
Could Steve Jobs have been saved?
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.
Can you live without a pancreas?
Yes, you can live without a pancreas. You'll need to make a few adjustments to your life, though. Your pancreas makes substances that control your blood sugar and help your body digest foods. After surgery, you'll have to take medicines to handle these functions.
How long did Steve Jobs live after diagnosis?
After a delay of nine months after diagnosis, in 2004, Jobs opted for surgery. He died 7 years later. There has been widespread speculation about whether Jobs' decision to use CAM approaches hastened his death by postponing initiation of potentially life-prolonging conventional treatments (Grady, 2011).
How serious is 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.
Is Whipple surgery painful?
There is no doubt that the Whipple procedure is a painful operation. This is largely due to the extent of the organs being removed or rearranged and the proximity of the pancreas to nerves as they exit the spine at the back of the abdomen during the operation.
How long can you live with a neuroendocrine tumor?
Around 90 out of 100 people (around 90%) survive for 1 year or more. Around 89 out of every 100 people (around 89%) people survive for 5 years or more. This 5 year survival rate was taken from a European study that looked at 270 people diagnosed with a gut neuroendocrine tumour between 1984 and 2008.
Why did Steve Jobs die?
It gave all of us two more years of Mr. Jobs. The reason for his cancer progression and likely death was progressive tumor in either the abdomen (carcinomatous peritonitis with attendant bowel obstruction--the most likely scenario) or recolonization of his liver with metastases (less likely).
Why did Steve Jobs lose weight?
The major complications of these types of tumors have to do with the hormones they secrete. That is why Mr. Jobs had his weight loss.
When did Steve Jobs lose his pancreas?
Jobs waited so long before seeking normal treatment that he had to undergo a Whipple procedure, losing his pancreas and whole duodenum in 2004. This was the first alarming sign that his disease had progressed beyond a compact primary to at least a tumor so large his Pancreas and duodenum could not be saved.
Did Jobs catch the tumor early?
Mr. Jobs said himself that they caught the tumor early. Early in GEP-NETs means in many cases that surgically removing the primary tumor without additional removal of organs is a curative with a low chance or recurrence.
Can you force someone to choose a treatment?
Yet, as long as the person is mentally sane, we cannot force them to choose a working treatment, even if it means their death. Sadly, even for one of the greatest personalities of the last 100 years, there will be no exception, and badly treated cancer is just as deadly for him as for anyone else...
Was Steve Jobs a vegetarian?
Now Mr. Jobs always was a free thinker, a strong believer in spirituality, a vegetarian and a known skeptic of conventional medicine. He chose to reject conventional medicine altogether for a while. He's not alone in that. We come across many people like this and we all know someone in our midst that uses homeopathy or has this known fear of anything "chemical" (to those I always say that everything is chemical, if you think dihydrogen oxide sounds scary you should stop drinking water). Individual freedom of thought and choice is a cornerstone of our modern society and the medical world makes no exception.
Did Steve Jobs have a tumor?
Mr. Jobs was diagnosed with a neuroendocrine tumor of the pancreas which, like a great majority of these tumors, likely had micrometastatic spread at diagnosis. I agree that he likely had a resection of the tumor, whether through a Whipple procedure or another less radical procedure. Whether he had some liver involvement at diagnosis is unclear, but my bet is that he had some minimal liver abnormalities on CT of unclear significance, and they went ahead with the surgery given his age and his desires.
What did Steve Jobs say about surgery?
In advance of the Monday release of his book, "Steve Jobs: A Biography," Isaacson told the CBS News program " 60 Minutes " that Jobs said he initially felt the surgery would be too invasive.
How long did Steve Jobs refuse surgery?
Oct. 20, 2011 — -- Steve Jobs, the visionary Apple co-founder who died earlier this month at 56, admitted to biographer Walter Isaacson that for nine months he refused to undergo surgery for his pancreatic cancer -- a decision he later regretted as his health declined.
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 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.
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.
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, ...
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 ...
Did Steve Jobs need chemotherapy?
Jobs was relieved that, as he put it in that 2004 email, he did “not require any chemotherapy or radiation treatments.”. He took that as a sign that the surgery “got it all,” as every cancer patient desperately wishes to hear.
Why did Steve Jobs choose to pursue alternative therapies?
Today it was announced that Apple pioneer Steve Jobs chose to pursue alternative therapies to treat his pancreatic cancer, a decision he came to regret. After this announcement people began issuing judgments of how "such a smart man could make such a stupid choice." Harsh. Steve Jobs left us with an example of how medical treatment decisions are not black and white--they are highly personal.
What type of cancer did Steve Jobs have?
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. Many of these therapies he found on the Internet. Despite pleading from his distressed family, friends and physicians, Steve chose to delay surgery and chemotherapy for 9 months. When dealing with aggressive cancers, a delay of this magnitude can shave years off of one's life. However, chemo and surgery are not without their unpleasant side effects either.
Why do people choose alternative therapies?
Walter Isaacson, the author of Jobs' biography, said, "I think he felt if you ignore something you don't want to exist, you can have magical thinking. It had worked for him in the past and he would regret it." As a man who led a multi billion-dollar organization and one who was used to making tough, independent decisions, it didn't surprise me that Jobs chose only alternative therapies for his initial treatment. He was more comfortable being in control and extreme dieting gave him the illusion of control. However, Steve was also a calculated risk taker. He chose to pursue alternatives despite the lack of evidence. So why did he do it? Research supports that many restrictive diets, disordered eating patterns and ardent alternative therapy practices stem from a strong desire to control, particularly in response to diagnosis of a life-changing disease .
Is surgery for pancreatic cancer scary?
According to today's reports, Steve's wife said that he feared of being "opened up." Surgery is a scary proposition for anyone, especially for those with cancer. Pancreatic cancer often involves a complicated surgical procedure called a "Whipple" or pancreaticoduodenectomy. Even in the hands of the most skilled surgeon, there are risks. Aggressive chemotherapy can significantly impair a person's quality of life, too. The decision of what therapy to pursue and when is highly personal. I currently have close relative with terminal breast cancer and a close friend with pancreatic cancer. Both are choosing divergent strategies to treat their cancers.
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.
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?
Steve Jobs had been told that his type of pancreatic cancer was one of the 5% that could be cured. Photograph: Paul Sakuma/AP
When was Steve Jobs diagnosed with cancer?
After being diagnosed with the cancer in 2004, Jobs embarked on a series of alternative therapies including spiritual healing, said Walter Isaacson, author of the upcoming biography Steve Jobs.
What kind of cancer did Apple founders have?
The co-founder of Apple, who died this month after a long battle with the disease, had been told he had a very slow growing type of pancreatic cancer, and that his was one of the 5% "that can actually be cured".
