Steve Jobs Undergoes Cancer Surgery 413
Zycom writes "Reuters reports that doctors successfully removed a cancerous tumor from the pancreas of Apple CEO Steve Jobs. In an e-mail he sent out from his hospital bed after the surgery he explained the disease, saying, "I had a very rare form of pancreatic cancer called an islet cell neuroendocrine tumor, which represents about 1 percent of the total cases of pancreatic cancer diagnosed each year, and can be cured by surgical removal if diagnosed in time (mine was)." He will not need to have any chemotherapy or radiation therapy and has an excellent prognosis. While he is recuperating, Tim Cook, head of worldwide sales and operations, will run the company."
Alrighty then! (Score:5, Funny)
Cheers!
Erick
c'mon (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Alrighty then! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Alrighty then! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Alrighty then! (Score:5, Funny)
Bill Gates will get cancer in about 10 years time.
He will then file a slew of patents, like he was
the first head of a major computing corporation
to ever have it.
All the Apple-ites will then point out that Steve
Jobs had cancer, 10 years before Bill Gates.
The more historical pedantic will then point out
that the head of Xerox had cancer back in the 70s.
Re:Alrighty then! (Score:5, Informative)
For those that don't know, Kearns was they guy in charge in the 80s during Xerox's turnaround.
Re:Alrighty then! (Score:5, Informative)
Not quite- his warranty covers everything, except that little bit of his pancreas.
(I discovered a few weeks ago that the little flippy part of my power adapter..duck-something is what the guy at the store called it... is not covered by warranty, supposedly. Probably because they break like crazy. 3-goddam-thousand-dollar laptop and they want to charge me $20 for the little flippy power plug bit).
Use the long cable. (Score:4, Informative)
The flippy one is only two prong. If you're connected to a USB item without ground, you'll get a shock through the case of the Powerbook if you're using only the two prong adapter.
It happened to me a lot when I was overseas with flakey main power.
Duck Head. (Score:4, Informative)
Jobs used the wrong hospital (Score:5, Funny)
http://www.ipodbattery.com/ [ipodbattery.com]
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Jobs' Dirty Secret (Score:5, Funny)
In other news... (Score:5, Informative)
More on their site [sourceforge.net]
Re:Alrighty then! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Alrighty then! (Score:3, Funny)
Or maybe The budget Athlon from a gamer's view [slashdot.org]????
now watch Gates copy him (Score:2, Funny)
Re:now watch Gates copy him (Score:5, Funny)
Virex 7.2 caught it. (Score:5, Funny)
Your virus definitions were last updated on July 21, 2004, and appear to be up to date.
Cleaning Scan started at 2004-08-01 20:04:43 -0700Scanning
Scanning file
Summary report on
File(s)
Total files:
Clean:
Not scanned:
Cleaned:
Congratulations, Steve jobs! Huzzah! LiveSTRONG!
Re:Virex 7.2 caught it. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Virex 7.2 caught it. (Score:2)
Nothing like cancer... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Nothing like cancer... (Score:2)
If I were the surgeon... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:If I were the surgeon... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:A serious question. (Score:4, Insightful)
You might disagree, and you're entitled to. Me, I think Jobs has immeasurably improved my experience of using computers.
What has he done? Re-energized a bunch of creative engineers and designers. Led them to take on the world and design insanely great products.
Is he a coder? Or an engineer? Or a designer? No. He's a visionary. We need all those sorts of people to advance the state of any art.
You are, of course, free to hate his vision. I do not. : )
Re:A serious question. (Score:5, Insightful)
And then it does.
RDF (Score:4, Funny)
All Jokes Aside (Score:5, Informative)
If Jobs wasn't there (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:If Jobs wasn't there (Score:2)
Jobs comes back, and you get iMac, OS X, servers, iPod, and good times.
Re:If Jobs wasn't there (Score:2)
I Wonder... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:I Wonder... (Score:2)
I wonder if he has a little Apple shaped scar now?
New Study shows (Score:3, Funny)
What!? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What!? (Score:2)
Re:What!? (Score:5, Funny)
A link to his letter (Score:5, Informative)
Re:A link to his letter (Score:5, Funny)
PS: I'm sending this from my hospital bed using my 17-inch PowerBook and an Airport Express.
That's our Steve, always promoting his products!
Of course that doesn't mean they're not great, and he doesn't have every right to do so, because they is and he does. But somehow I had to laugh, perhaps at his resiliance more than anything else. Life goes on, right?
D
haha what? (Score:5, Funny)
dude's in the hospital and still manages a plug. bravo, mate.
cancerous tumor? (Score:5, Funny)
They called it Microsoft.
Yeah, yeah, cancer isn't funny. But karma whoring overcomes all.
Woah (Score:2)
Good to Hear (Score:2, Insightful)
Double-take (Score:5, Funny)
Am I the only one who read the word "run" as "ruin" on first read?
Seriously, folks (Score:5, Funny)
For all the whining, posing, Microsoft/Apple/Linux bashing we do; for all the work related stress we put up with and all the missed opportunities to spend time with loved ones; we only have a limited time on Earth.
The most important thing is....
And get well Steve. Take the time off to think about how great a colour iPod with bluetooth would be.
cheers,
Justin.
Statistics (Score:2)
And yes, we know that Steve Ballmer already has the much more statistically prevalent; Brain Cancer [ntk.net]
Oh, and one more thing... (Score:5, Funny)
I wonder if his doctor had a dark enough sense of humor to say something like,
"Well, we got your test results back. Your liver is fine, your heart is great, and your pulmonary health is excellent.
Oh, and one more thing..."
Great to hear he'll be fine.
Re:Oh, and one more thing... (Score:2)
"Give it to me straight Terrence."
"The good news is.. you have a clean bill of health."
"Oh what a relief!"
"The bad news is.. you have cancer!"
(wav [fortunecity.com])
Well You Know What They Say.... (Score:5, Funny)
Get well soon steve
Ah-ha! (Score:3, Funny)
Steve is now a Type-1 Diabetic :-( (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Steve is now a Type-1 Diabetic :-( (Score:5, Informative)
They just took out a tumor.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
A Wake Up Call? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:A Wake Up Call? (Score:2)
If you live everyday like it is your last you will have never prepared for the future. Instead I think you would want to live everyday as "how you would like to be remembered if you were to die tomorrow".
Re:A Wake Up Call? (Score:5, Funny)
Okay that makes sense. Here is my plan for every day of the rest of my life:
7am: wake up, eat an enormous breakfast
8am - midday: make funeral arrangements
afternoon: give away my cds, computer etc.
night: go look at the stars, or something
7am: wake up, eat an enormous breakfast
8am - midday: make funeral arrangements
afternoon: give away my cds, computer etc.
night: go look at the stars, or something
7am: wake up, eat an enormous breakfast
8am - midday: make funeral arrangements
afternoon: give away my cds, computer etc.
night: go look at the stars, or something
7am: wake up, eat an enormous breakfast
8am - midday: make funeral arrangements
afternoon: give away my cds, computer etc.
night: go look at the stars, or something
7am: wake up, eat an enormous breakfast
8am - midday: make funeral arrangements
afternoon: give away my cds, computer etc.
night: go look at the stars, or something
7am: wake up, eat an enormous breakfast
8am - midday: make funeral arrangements
afternoon: give away my cds, computer etc.
night: go look at the stars, or something
last line (Score:3, Interesting)
the last line of his memo:
PS: I'm sending this from my hospital bed using my 17-inch PowerBook and an Airport Express.
Note he stops just short of asserting it was the Airport Express that cured his cancer...
In all seriousness, any time anyone beats cancer it is Good News. Has there been any reports on how the cancer was caught so quickly?
~jeff
Re:last line (Score:3, Interesting)
One pointer is that he leads such a healthy lifestyle, so no smoking/overweight triggers (apart from all the stress) which leads me to think it may be a genetic issue that hi
Hang in there, Steve (Score:4, Insightful)
As a child of a twice cancer survivour, I wish all of your family well, I know they are praying for you (Even if they aren't religious).
rumor sites (Score:5, Funny)
Thus dispelling rumors circulating for days (on MacOSRumors et al) that Steve was:
....and of course, various other unsubstantiated rumors not worth mentioning (everyone figured out the bionic legs were bogus right away).
Reality Distortion Field fooled the (Score:2)
Allowed itself to become one of the rarer types (less threatening if found early), then went ahead and got itself found early. ("You don't need to harm me... Move along..." -- Jedi Mind Trick.)
Seriously, as others have said, get well soon Steve!
Does Jobs' have a successor? (Score:5, Interesting)
As a shareholder, and considering that Apple is a public company, does Jobs have a successor?
Case and point: We all saw what happened last time Steve left. He came back and essentially saved the company from destruction. He was quoted as saying something along the lines of "I am not going to let someone wreck this company again".
From what I see, Apple = Steve. Apple's success lies in Steve's hands, or more to the point, as goes Jobs, goes Apple.
Does anyone have insight on this? What happens if something happens and Steve is not at the helm any more? Does Apple die with him?
Re:Does Jobs' have a successor? (Score:3, Insightful)
It sure looks that way. The upside to having Jobs pay attention to so many details in a new product launch is you know what you're getting when you buy an Apple product. The downside is there's no one who knows what to do when he's gone because he's micro-managed everything.
It's very hard to start a company that lasts more than 5 years. It's even harder to start a company that survives its
Re:Does Jobs' have a successor? (Score:2)
Steve's return to Apple brought some much-needed focus and discipline to the company. It doesn't leak like a sieve any more, its employees and managers tend to stay on-task since there's a clear direction and the people who work there--from top to bottom--are the best.
Besides, he's going to be back at work soon--they don't dare f*** up!
Go, Steve, go!
Re:Does Jobs' have a successor? (Score:2)
If not I'll gladly take on that responsibility.
Who knew.. (Score:3, Informative)
Medical Information (Score:5, Informative)
Overview
Definition:
A pancreatic islet cell tumor is an uncommon tumor of the pancreas that arises from a distinct type of cell in the pancreas, the islet cell. Normally, islet cells produce insulin and other hormones, and islet cell tumors can also produce hormones.
Alternative Names:
Islet cell tumors; Islet of Langerhans tumor; Neuroendocrine tumors
Causes, incidence, and risk factors:
In the normal pancreas, cells called islet cells produce hormones that regulate a variety of bodily functions, such as blood sugar level and the production of stomach acid.
Tumors that arise from islet cells of the pancreas can also produce a variety of hormones, though some do not. Although islet cells produce many different hormones, most tumors secrete only one specific hormone that leads to specific symptoms. Pancreatic islet cell tumors can be benign or malignant (cancerous).
Islet cell tumors include insulinomas, glucagonomas, and gastrinomas (Zollinger-Ellison syndrome). A family history of multiple endocrine neoplasia, type I (MEN I) is a risk factor for the development of islet cell tumors.
Symptoms:
* Sweating
* Tremor
* Rapid heart rate
* Anxiety
* Hunger
* Dizziness
* Headache
* Clouding of vision
* Confusion
* Behavioral changes
* Convulsions
* Loss of consciousness
* Skin rash that migrates on the face, abdomen, perineum, buttocks, or lower extremities
o May be crusty and scaly
o May have raised lesions filled with clear fluid or pus
* Inflamed mouth and tongue
* Weight loss
* Weight gain (unintentional)
* Peptic ulcer pain
* Vomiting blood
* Diarrhea
* Abdominal pain
Note: The symptoms depend upon the type of tumor and the hormone produced.
Signs and tests:
The type of tests performed may vary depending upon the symptoms associated with the condition. Some of the following abnormalities may be detected on testing:
* elevated serum glucagon level
* an abdominal CT scan may reveal a pancreatic tumor (sometimes the tumor may be too small to see with a CT scan)
* elevated fasting glucose level
* abnormal glucose tolerance test
* catheterization of the pancreas to show high hormone level in the veins (this involves putting a wire into a blood vessel and taking blood out for measurements)
* MRI of abdomen to show pancreatic tumor (MRI can sometimes see smaller tumors than those seen with a CT scan)
* elevated serum insulin level
* elevated serum insulin C-peptide
* low fasting glucose level
* increased gastrin level
* positive secretin stimulation test for pancreas
* positive calcium infusion test
Treatment:
Treatment will depend upon the type of tumor discovered and whether the tumor is benign or malignant. Malignant tumors spread to other organs, grow aggressively, and may not be treatable. In general, tumors are removed surgically, if possible.
If malignant cancerous cells spread (metastasize) to the liver, a portion of the liver may also be removed, if possible. If the cancer is widespread, various forms of chemotherapy may be used to shrink the tumors.
If the abnormal production of hormones is causing problems, medications may be given to counteract their effects. For example, the overproduction of gastrin in the case of gastrinomas results in oversecretion of acid in the stomach, and medications that block acid secretion can be taken to reduce symptoms.
Expectations (prognosis):
Patients may be cured if tumors are surgically removed before they have spread to other organs. If tumors are malignant, chemotherapy may be used, but is usually unsuccessful at cur
Symptoms, diagnosis, treatment of such tumors (Score:5, Informative)
I don't know if he does, but the neuroendocrine tumor in his islet cells would have affected insulin production which in turn would have caused symptoms such as:
Steve's doctors would have tested for a number of things including:
They would have have then ordered abdominal MRI scans, because these tumors (in the Islet of Langerhans) would likely be too small to see by CT scans). If the MRIs were positive, surgery would be next.
If the tumor had metastasized, a portion of the liver would have also been removed, and chemotherapy would have been used. As that appears not to be the case, Steve's tumor is likely a pre-malignant lesion.
Disgusting (Score:4, Insightful)
First of all, Steve is a father to several children and is sick with a serious illness. This alone should cause you to some show sort of decency in your remarks.
I have a nephew who is fighting Leukemia. When you visit someone you know or who is a member of your family with cancer, it is hardly funny.
The Slashdot community may not respect Steve Jobs for what he did for modern computing. That is their ignorance. I just cannot understand the callousness of some people who poke fun other's tragedies.
I wish S.J. a speedy recovery, foremost for his family. I do not know him, but I know the result of his imagination. We should all strive to have that impact on the world.
Re:Disgusting (Score:5, Insightful)
I have yet to see a single comment that wished Steve harm or anything less then a full recovery. If someone had said something along those lines, it would be crossing the line into "Asshole Land," but surfing at +2 carma, I have seen nothing like that.
Otherwise, lighten up. Cancer jokes are funny and the people that laugh at them the hardest are usually people who have/had it.
Re:Disgusting (Score:3, Insightful)
Much love for science and its ability to fix some of the ailments we all face.
Re:Disgusting (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm not. In this comment section I have seen lots of people express that it is good news that Steve Jobs is likely to make a quick recovery, and lots of people wish him the best. (I will add to that. Get well soon Steve). And there is discussion of the actual illness, as well as lots of jokes comparing his cancer and the medical procedures to practices and products of Apple and the computer industry. Few if any of the jokes strike me as mean-spirited
Re:Disgusting (Score:5, Insightful)
In general, the remarks I have seen have been respectful of Steve's condition. Yes, some have shown a sense of humour, and some have taken a few shots at Apple's warranty plans. It should be noted that Steve has an excellent prognosis. Non-metastatic cancer, well localized and readily excised. People would be more circumspect if the outcome were more in doubt.
Somber, humourless expressions of support are all well and good for politicians, and they're fine from close friends and family--in moderation.
From anybody else, come on. For people who are ill, the last thing they need are folks moping morosely around their hospital bed acting like they're already dead. Steve expects to be all right, and he's apparently quite well enough to be plugging the Powerbook and AirPort from his bed. Yes, he has cancer. Yes, he's having surgery. It's more serious than a tonsillectomy, but easier than a coronary artery bypass graft. For that matter, it will probably be done laparascopically, so it's less traumatic than, say, a C-section.
The problem is that word 'cancer'. It seems to have the same magical effect as 'terrorism'. The words are the ultimate trump cards in medicine and politics, respectively. Hear either one, and you're supposed to sit in stony, respectful, mournful silence.
Damn it, get real! These people are our friends and family. Should we stop laughing with them just because they're ill? Treat them differently? Shy away from smiling around them? Suck the fun out of their lives because joy, and humour, and laughter are only for the healthy?
In case some dumbass wants to spout off on my 'right' to have an opinion on this--yes, I have some experience with cancer. My best friend's mother passed away from a very aggressive breast cancer. My great uncle is pushing eighty after surviving a bout with lung cancer. I do cancer research for a living, in a large research and teaching hospital. Oh, and there seems to be a tendency towards Alzheimer's in my family, which is a really scary way to go.
I feel for the parent poster's nephew, and everyone who is facing cancer. It is scary, and it isn't funny. What I see here on Slashdot, though, it not people laughing at Jobs' cancer. I see people laughing with Jobs, because he's going to beat cancer. I see people laughing at Jobs for the same reasons they always have, and it's a taste of normality. I see people laughing at Apple, because it's friendly ribbing that Jobs is used to. He's one of the geek family; he took the time to tell us from his hospital bed what kind of hardware he was emailing from. The parent poster still plays games and jokes with his nephew, doesn't he?
Re:Disgusting (Score:5, Insightful)
I know we all like to joke... (Score:2)
PET scan (Score:2, Interesting)
The one thing that all cancerous cells have in common is a heavily anaerobic metabolism that works very quickly in order to support the continual state of mitosis that cancerous cells are in. An amount of radio-tagged sugars are introduced into the body and an image can then be created where areas that metabolize the most show up the darkest. Some areas are obv
Words Steve didn't want to hear as he went under. (Score:5, Funny)
google line from letter (Score:2)
This is starting to be one of those lessons in being specific with an explanation because the most common result on a search engine is not what you want peop
To all those in doubt (Score:3, Insightful)
Get well soon, Steve. If the comments to this post are any gauge, you have the support of the nerd community across the globe.
Taking up a PayPal collection... (Score:3, Funny)
Poor Tim (Score:4, Funny)
I certainly hope there is not a single slip-up when Steve is gone, otherwise Tim is out the door in September.
Friend has same cancer in Nov 03 (Score:4, Interesting)
The Whipple operation removes a good fraction of your digestive system- part of pancreas, part of stomach, part of colon, gall bladder. My friend lost 50 pounds from post-op recovery and radiation. However has gained half that back. He's had to learn how to eat on a diminished digestive system. A sliver of the pancreas was left, so no insulin is necessary.
Will this change the way Apple innovates? (Score:5, Interesting)
Second: Does anyone think this will serve as a 'wake up' call to Apple's leadership and innovation practices?
I am a Switcher and what I found when I started following the world-that-is-Apple that Steve === Apple. He was a founder, when he was outed the company went on a death spiral, when he came back it got a second life with the 1st gen iMac and now Appel rules digital music.
But is that the best way to run a company? Certainly you NEED a strong leader, but it seems a bit pied piper to me. What would the next years look like for Apple if Steve had had terminal cancer? Has Apple grown into an organization that can go on without him?
I work for a small business and our founder and president of three decades will soon retire. He has run his company very patriarchially (sp) and it has been interesting to see senior managment change their styles to rely less upon the president for decision making and instead, take that on themselves.
I use that as an illustration of growing pains that Apple may one day soon face. How to instil the innovation and business savvy of Steve Jobs throughout the organization so that Apple will be a strong company well past Steve's tenure.
Re:Will this change the way Apple innovates? (Score:3, Interesting)
While the biggest flaw in democracy is that the inept cripple the apted (the efficiency of the whole system is the product of the efficiency of it's parts...and noone can tell me there is no null in any parlament), the biggest flaw in single leadership is that is was most of the time more or less chance that the people getting the job were capable of it. A monarchy, when the crown is given t
Prognosis (Score:3, Informative)
I hope things continue to go well for him.
Rumors (Score:5, Funny)
Best wishes for luck and a speedy recovery.
Re:Detection? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Detection? (Score:2, Informative)
Cheers,
Erick
Re:Detection? (Score:2, Interesting)
In any case, he's insan
Re:Detection? (Score:4, Informative)
This is actually an interesting question. I am not specifically aware of any general screening possible for pancreatic cancer either. There are many blood markers that can be positive for specific cancer types, but it seems more likely that an MRI or CT scan for something else (unrelated) showed this tumor.
Actualy, that is probobly not how it went down.
One can think of the pancreas as functionaly divided into two systems: the exocrine pancreas and the endocrine pancreas.
The exocrine pancreas is involved in the digestion of food and is where the vast majority of pancreatic tumors occur. One of the reasons they are so often fatal is that tumors of the exocrine pancreas rarely produce symptoms befor they extend into other structures.
The endocrine pancreas produces several hormones, including insulin, glucogon, VIP, somatostatin, and so on. Tumors of this portion of the pancreas often do produce symptoms secondary to overproduction of one or more of these hormones.
Jobs tumor was one of the endocrine types (he does not say more specificaly) so it would not be unusual for his tumor to have prompted studies which led to its detection.
All just speculation, of course.
Re:No offense ... (Score:5, Insightful)
distorted vision of CEOs etc (Score:3, Interesting)
Hate to break it to you, but here's sorta how it works.
Jobs says "let's make an MP3 player better than anything else out there", or someone suggests it, and Jobs says "OK, let's look into it".
One person sees what "anything else" has. Another sees what people might be willing to pay. Another runs some numbers on what it might cost to build. Another works on a little concept art based on what the engineers think is
Re:distorted vision of CEOs etc (Score:5, Interesting)
If you'd be a little more informed, you'd know from talking with Apple engineers (lite I do at the Apple World Wide Developer Conference) that Jobs actually has a say in everything.
He actually overseas both software and hardware development to the point of butting in on designs/features/implementation and repeatedly looks over your shoulder to make sure it's as he wants it to be.
At first, I'm told, this is nerve-wrecking and eventually, Apple engineerings rely on this and some actually appreciate it when comes the time where Jobs has nothing much to say about your product. Engineers told me, "it's at that point we usually know we have a winner".
(All jokes aside, I've not heard this specific comment about the Mac Cube
micromanagement and credit where it is due (Score:3, Insightful)
Did you just seriously imply that you need to "talk to developers at WWDC" like you do(nice horn tootin' by the way) to know Jobs micromanages? It's probably his most infamous personality quirk, aside from his massive ego, aka the Steve Reality Distortion Field.
You missed my point entirely. The original Jobs Fanboy said "o
Re:micromanagement and credit where it is due (Score:5, Insightful)
Without Steve Jobs, the products may exist, but they most certainly would not be up to the extraidonary standard they are.
Case in point, the original iPod as designed by engineers (pre-release) was almost impossible to navigate. Jobs sat down with the team and worked out how you could get to anywhere on the iPod with only 3 clicks. That is what sets Apple's products apart and what makes them so successful.
Re:10 bucks says... (Score:2)
Re:Whaaa!! (Score:2)
McGarrett. Austin. McQueen. Jobs.
Good luck, Steve.
Re:Get well.... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Get well.... (Score:3, Insightful)
See my other response to your post on the subject.
Woz didn't turn Apple around, leading the company to develop a kick ass new operating system and this sweet Powerbook I'm working on.
Woz is a freakin' genius, and a real mensch. But just because he's great doesn't mean Jobs has to be not-great. Jobs is a great leader.
Re:NY Times Spin on the Article (Score:3, Informative)