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Jobs considering liver transplant
Apple chief executive Steve Jobs is considering a liver transplant as a result of complications after treatment for pancreatic cancer in 2004, according to people monitoring his illness.
- Bloomberg
- Published: 23:27 January 17, 2009
San Francisco: Apple chief executive Steve Jobs is considering a liver transplant as a result of complications after treatment for pancreatic cancer in 2004, according to people monitoring his illness.
Patients with Jobs's condition can survive for 20 years or more from the time of their original cancer diagnosis, and the surgery often gives good results, said Steven Brower, professor and chairman of surgery at Mercer University School of Medicine in Savannah, Georgia. Brower has not treated Jobs and does not know details of his condition.
Jobs, who appeared increasingly thin and frail throughout 2008, has not provided details about his condition. In a statement released on January 5, Jobs said he was suffering from a "hormone imbalance" and that the remedy for his weight loss was "relatively simple".
Nine days later, he announced that he was taking a five-month medical leave because his health issues were "more complex" than he originally thought.
In a telephone interview on Friday, Jobs, 53, said he would not comment further on his health.
"Why don't you guys leave me alone - why is this important?" Jobs said.
The company's board members - including Intuit chairman Bill Campbell, former US vice-president Al Gore and Google CEO Eric Schmidt - either could not be reached or declined to comment.
Apple did not comment in detail on Jobs' health last year, saying it was a private matter. In June, after his appearance at an Apple developers' conference amid renewed concern among investors that his cancer had returned, the company said only that Jobs was suffering from a "common bug".
Jobs, who co-founded the company in 1976 and returned in 1997, transformed it by updating the Mac with sleeker and thinner models, including the iMac in 1998 and the ultra-thin MacBook Air notebook last year. His focus on stylish and simple-to-use gadgets won over millions of buyers, turning the iPod media player and iPhone handset into best sellers.
Jobs said in 2004 that he underwent surgery to remove a neuroendocrine islet cell tumour, a rare, slow-growing type of cancer that affects as many as 3,000 people in the US annually. These tumours are distinguished by their tendency to overproduce hormones such as insulin. Excess hormones can lead to low blood sugar, low blood pressure or other symptoms.
Neuroendocrine tumours that originate in the pancreas, as Jobs' did, often spread to the liver. One option doctors have in these cases is to perform a liver transplant, Brower said.
"It's one of the tumours for which transplantation can be considered," said Brower, who is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
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