His 9 month lag from diagnosis to surgery.....

oahuyahoo · 10-06-2011, 7:58am

didn't help his case. Nor did not taking chemo and radiation. They had to do a Whipple procedure on him meaning it had metastasized. Nor are doctors recommending full liver transplants as this makes matters much worse. I really wonder what these poeple were thinking. Even slow moving cancers 9 months gives them plenty room to spread. I really believe he would be alive today had he gotten out of his own way and let the doctors do their jobs although i am seriously wondering about that particular crew also.

Sea Six · 10-06-2011, 8:04am

What would have really helped matters is if he had had the benefit of a government person separating that dangerous close proximity of the doctor to his patient.

NEVRL8T · 10-06-2011, 8:05am

I guess all you can say is that he lived his life the way he wanted to. At least what was left of it.

Yerf Dog · 10-06-2011, 8:10am

Jobs right?

I have not read the particulars.

Sea Six · 10-06-2011, 8:17am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yerf Dog

Jobs right?

I have not read the particulars.

I,m going with that assumption myself. OP was a little vague.

CP · 10-06-2011, 8:39am

Quote:

Originally Posted by oahuyahoo

didn't help his case. Nor did not taking chemo and radiation. They had to do a Whipple procedure on him meaning it had metastasized. Nor are doctors recommending full liver transplants as this makes matters much worse. I really wonder what these poeple were thinking. Even slow moving cancers 9 months gives them plenty room to spread. I really believe he would be alive today had he gotten out of his own way and let the doctors do their jobs although i am seriously wondering about that particular crew also.

Who you talkin' 'bout, Willis??

oahuyahoo · 10-06-2011, 8:42am

Quote:

Originally Posted by CP

Who you talkin' 'bout, Willis??

Steve Jobs

Yerf Dog · 10-06-2011, 11:52am

Quote:

Timeline: Steve Jobs' journey

Jobs' tumor was discovered in October 2003. He had been getting abdominal scans periodically because of a history of intestinal problems. His doctors noticed a growth that turned out to be an islet cell neuroendocrine tumor - a rare and operable form of pancreatic cancer. With surgery, his long-term prognosis would be good.

But Jobs sought instead to treat his tumor with a special diet while launching a lengthy exploration of alternative approaches. "It's safe to say he was hoping to find a solution that would avoid surgery," says one person familiar with the situation. "I don't know if he truly believed that was possible. The odd thing is, for us what seemed like an alternative type of thing, for him is normal. It's not out of the ordinary for Steve."

Apple director Levinson, who has a Ph.D. in biochemistry, monitored the situation for the board. He and another director, Bill Campbell, tried to persuade Jobs to have the surgery. "There was genuine concern on the part of several board members that he may not have been doing the best thing for his health," says one insider. "But Steve is Steve. He can be pretty stubborn."

By the standards of medical science, it was an open-and-shut case: There was no serious alternative to surgery. "Surgery is the only treatment modality that can result in cure," Dr. Jeffrey Norton, chief of surgical oncology at Stanford, wrote in a 2006 medical journal article about this kind of pancreatic cancer. It was Norton, one of the foremost experts in the field, who eventually operated on the Apple CEO, Fortune is told. (He declined to comment.)

Dr. Roderich Schwarz, chairman of surgical oncology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, who has performed the procedure more than 150 times (but who was not involved in Jobs' case), says that waiting more than a few weeks with this diagnosis "makes no sense because you don't know what the potential for growth or spread is." Schwarz says he knows of no evidence that diet can be helpful. "But the patient decides. If they believe an herbal diet can do miracles, they have to make the decision. Every once in a while you have somebody who decides something you wish they wouldn't."

The surgery Jobs faced, known as the "Whipple procedure," is brutal and complex. It lasts six hours or more and involves removing parts of the pancreas, bile duct, and intestines, then reconstructing the digestive tract. But it's relatively safe: Mortality from the surgery is less than 5% at specialized medical centers with surgeons who have performed it many times.

Jobs put the procedure off for more than nine months, raising the thorny issue of disclosure. He told the board, and the board decided to say nothing. Palo Alto attorney Larry Sonsini, the company's longtime outside counsel, advised the directors that the CEO's right to privacy trumped any disclosure requirement as long as he could continue to perform his duties. A second outside lawyer agreed.

So Apple conducted business as usual, disclosing nothing and letting the tiny circle of insiders who knew about the situation continue to trade Apple shares.

The board of Pixar, the other public company where Jobs served as CEO, remained in the dark until his announcement, according to director Graziano. "All I know is I didn't [know]," Graziano told Fortune.

In the end Jobs had the surgery, at the end of July in 2004. Sources tell Fortune that he decided to proceed with the operation earlier that month, after a scan revealed growth in the tumor. By all accounts, the surgery was a success.

It is impossible to know whether Jobs' decision to delay the procedure has increased his risk of a cancer recurrence in any way. In a newspaper interview, Norton estimated that 80% to 90% of patients with Jobs' condition survived at least ten years, while cautioning that predictions are difficult because the number of cases is so small.

Steve Jobs (pg. 4) - Mar. 4, 2008

Mike Mercury · 06-10-2012, 3:45pm

Steve took LSD and other illegal drugs when he was in his "formative years"; and he bragged about it... and later made fun of other company owners who didn't experiment.

No telling what systems in his body were already weakened due to this. Then to get cancer; it's tough to fight off when you're already not 100% to begin with.

BuckyThreadkiller · 06-10-2012, 4:00pm

As well as having some weird as hell dietary habits.

He worked at an apple farm/commune at one time while working nights at Atari and had a diet completely of apples. Nothing but apples.

The guy has a vision, but he was batshit strange and sometimes that'll help kill you.