Did Steve Jobs Refuse Treatment for Pancreatic Cancer?

On October 5, 2011, Steve Jobs died after a battle with a rare pancreatic cancer at age 56. But he may have lived longer if he sought proper medical care in time.

When Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was first diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003, his doctors advised him to seek surgery as soon as possible. Instead, he delayed the procedure for nine months and attempted to treat himself with alternative medicine. This fateful decision may have quickened Steve Jobs’ death — when he still could’ve been saved.

Steve Jobs died from pancreatic cancer complications on October 5, 2011, just eight years after his initial diagnosis. He was only 56 years old when he died, but his cancer had taken such a toll on his body that he looked gaunt, frail, and much older than his actual age. It was a far cry from the robust, energetic man who had once pioneered the personal computer era. 

 

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In life, Steve Jobs was renowned for thinking differently. At Apple, he had masterminded world-changing products like the Macintosh computer, the iPhone, and the iPad. Jobs’ genius came from his exacting, demanding nature and his uncanny ability to think outside the box. But tragically, he used the same mindset to confront his pancreatic cancer.

Though he eventually sought proper treatment, it was too late. As the years passed, and Jobs grew sicker, the public could tell that something was wrong. But Jobs downplayed his health problems — and threw himself into work. He changed the world when he introduced the iPhone in 2007. But two years later, in 2009, he had a liver transplant and took a leave of absence.

And in 2011, Jobs took another leave of absence. That August, he resigned as the CEO of Apple. As he lay dying on October 5, 2011, Steve Jobs took one last look at his family. Then his gaze rose over their shoulders as he spoke his final words. “Oh wow,” Jobs said. “Oh wow. Oh wow.”

This is the tragic story of Steve Jobs’ death — and the fateful choices that may have sent him to an early grave. 

How Did Steve Jobs Die?

In 2003, Steve Jobs went to the doctor for kidney stones. But the doctors soon noticed a “shadow” on his pancreas. They told Jobs that he had a neuroendocrine islet tumor, a rare form of pancreatic cancer.

In a way, it was good news. People diagnosed with neuroendocrine islet tumors generally have a far better prognosis than those with other forms of pancreatic cancer. Experts urged him to seek surgery as soon as possible. But to the dismay of his loved ones, he kept putting it off.

“I didn’t want my body to be opened,” Jobs later confessed to Isaacson. “I didn’t want to be violated in that way.”

Instead, Jobs leaned into what Isaacson called “magical thinking.” For nine months, he tried to cure his disease with a vegan diet, acupuncture, herbs, bowel cleansings, and other remedies that he found online. At one point, he even reached out to a psychic. Jobs had willed an entire company into existence, and he seemed to believe he could do the same with his health.

But his cancer wasn’t going away. Finally, Jobs agreed to have the surgery. In 2004, he admitted to Apple employees that he’d had a tumor removed.

“I have some personal news that I need to share with you, and I wanted you to hear it directly from me,” Jobs wrote in an email.

“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).”

Despite Jobs’ reassurances, it was clear that he wasn’t quite out of the woods. In 2006, concerns about his health spread after he appeared looking gaunt at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference. However, an Apple spokesperson insisted, “Steve’s health is robust.”

But to anyone watching, it was obvious that something was wrong. Jobs showed up to Apple events looking as gaunt as ever in 2008. And he bowed out of a keynote address in 2009. All the while, both Jobs and Apple dismissed concerns about his health and downplayed his problems.

Apple claimed Jobs simply had a “common bug.” Meanwhile, Jobs blamed his weight loss on a hormone imbalance. At one point, he even quipped: “Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”

But by early 2009, Steve Jobs couldn’t deny his illness any longer. He took a medical leave of absence and notified Apple employees via email.

“Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well,” Jobs wrote. “In addition, during the past week, I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought.”

Still, The Wall Street Journal shocked the world in June 2009 when they broke the news that Jobs had had a liver transplant in Tennessee. Though the hospital initially denied that he was a patient, they later admitted to treating him in a public statement. They also added, “[Jobs was the] sickest patient on the waiting list at the time a donor organ became available.”

Though Steve Jobs returned to work after six months away, he continued to struggle with his health. In January 2011, he took another leave of absence. By that August, he had stepped down as the CEO of Apple.

“I have always said that if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know,” Jobs said in a company email. “Unfortunately, that day has come.”

But even as Jobs got sicker, he stubbornly maintained his high standards. At the hospital, Jobs went through 67 nurses before finding three that he liked. By October, though, there was nothing more the doctors could do.

On October 5, 2011, Steve Jobs died, surrounded by his family, at his home in Palo Alto, California. The official cause of death was respiratory arrest related to his pancreatic tumor. Later, his biographer would reveal how long he had put off surgery — and how much he regretted that decision.

The Legacy Of A Tech Titan

Though time marched on after Steve Jobs’ death, he left a lingering impression on the world. By 2018, over 2 billion iPhones had been sold — changing how people communicated and lived their lives.

“I’m going to remember him as always being [of] very quick mind,” said Steve Wozniak following Steve Jobs’ death, “and almost all the time that we had discussions about how something should be done in the company, he was almost always right. He had thought it out.”

Indeed, Jobs’ vision for Apple — and the world of technology itself — had led the company to great heights. Exacting, persistent, and confident in his own ideas, Jobs didn’t even accept any market research for the iPad.

“It’s not the consumers’ job to know what they want,” he said.

But when it came to his own health, Jobs relied on his gut instinct instead of the advice of doctors. He let his cancer spread for nine months before opting for surgery. Some doctors say that this delay is why Steve Jobs died.

One integrative medicine expert said, “He had the only kind of pancreatic cancer that is treatable and curable. He essentially committed suicide.”

By 2010, Steve Jobs knew that he was near the end. And as Steve Jobs’ death approached, his ever-working mind turned to the afterlife.

“Sometimes I’m 50-50 on whether there’s a God,” Jobs told Isaacson during one of their last conversations. “It’s the great mystery we never quite know. But I like to believe there’s an afterlife. I like to believe the accumulated wisdom doesn’t just disappear when you die, but somehow it endures.”

Then, the Apple CEO paused and smiled. “But maybe it’s just like an on/off switch and click — and you’re gone,” he said. “Maybe that’s why I didn’t like putting on/off switches on Apple devices.”

A Tragic Decision That May Have Cost Steve Jobs His Life?

Pancreatic cancer is one of the faster spreading cancers; only about 4 percent of patients can expect to survive five years after their diagnosis. Each year, about 44,000 new cases are diagnosed in the U.S., and 37,000 people die of the disease. 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 the pancreas is not necessarily a death sentence.

The pancreas contains two types of glands: exocrine glands that produce enzymes that break down fats and proteins, and endocrine glands that make hormones like insulin that regulate sugar in the blood. Jobs died of tumors originating in the endocrine glands, which are among the rarer forms of pancreatic cancer. Unlike pancreatic cancer, with neuroendocrine cancer, if you catch it early, there is a real potential for cure. His cancer was detected during an abdominal scan in October 2003, as Fortune magazine reported in a 2008 cover story.

It is widely believed in conventional medicine that surgery can lead to long-term survival.  Despite the expert consensus on the value of surgery, Jobs did not elect it right away. 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. He underwent an operation called a modified Whipple procedure, or a pancreatoduodenectomy, which removes the right side of the pancreas, the gallbladder, and parts of the stomach, bile duct, and small intestine, which was a strong suggestion that his cancer had spread beyond the pancreas.

Within five years, it was clear that Jobs was not cured. In April of 2009 Jobs flew to Switzerland and underwent an experimental procedure called peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT). It involves delivering radiation to tumor cells by attaching one of two radioactive isotopes to a drug that mimics somatostatin, the hormone that regulates the entire endocrine system and the secretion of other hormones.

This treatment apparently failed, as shortly after that he had a liver transplant at Methodist University Hospital in Memphis. This is likely because the cancer had spread from the pancreas to his liver. Liver transplants are a well-established treatment for tumors that originate in that organ BUT it is very uncommon to remove the liver for metastatic cancer.

This is not routinely done for two primary reasons. The first is that it in no way, shape, or form addresses the original cancer, and it can easily spread to the new liver. But more importantly, he had to be placed on large doses of drugs to suppress his immune system so he would not reject his new liver. Tragically this is the very system your body uses to help control cancers. The liver has enormous regenerative capacity, and if they only removed the portion of his liver that contained the malignant cells, he would not have to take those dangerous anti-rejection drugs.

Conventional cancer experts disagree with the approach that was taken for Steve.

" In contrast, with a liver transplant "the overall costs and complications ... override its benefits, especially when compared with partial [removal of the liver]." 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.

Interestingly, it appears Steve was not given any chemotherapy or radiation treatments after his liver transplant, which undoubtedly contributed to his living over seven years after his surgery.

Was there Another Option for Steve's Cancer?

I am certainly not an expert in the treatment of cancer but it seems that Steve got the best cancer care possible. He avoided all treatments for nine months before electing to have a surgical intervention that frequently is curative for this type of cancer. It appears he also was able to avoid chemotherapy and radiation. Of course, the question remains on how he got the original cancer. It is impossible to know for sure as there are so many variables.

However, the biggest issue may have been the decision to have a liver transplant and go on the anti-rejection drugs. Conventional oncologists are stating that was, perhaps, a mistake.

I thought it would be helpful to interview an expert in the natural treatment of cancer on this so I contacted Dr. Nicholas Gonzalez, who is widely known for his work with pancreatic cancer. I previously interviewed Dr. Gonzalez about his remarkable cancer program, in which he discussed the details of his history and the therapeutic approaches he employs-with a rate of success that is entirely unheard of in conventional medicine, I might add.

As explained in our first interview, Dr. Gonzalez has been involved in the natural treatment of cancer for over 25 years, and offers really innovative therapies for this devastating disease. He's known internationally for his expertise on pancreatic cancer specifically, but his therapies have wider applications and can be applied to all forms of cancer.

Many of his pancreatic cancer patients are still alive and well today, having survived up to 20 years... In conventional medicine, this is simply unheard of. Using the best conventional therapies we have, the typical survival rate for a pancreatic cancer patient is about 12-18 months.

To summarize Dr. Gonzalez' program, it consists of three basic components:

1. Individualized diet based on nutritional (metabolic) typing
2. Individualized supplement program, which includes vitamins, minerals, trace elements, and pancreatic enzymes
3. Detoxification, which includes coffee enemas and colon cleanses

To review the details of his program, please see our previous interview. 

Steve Jobs, Another Victim of Pancreatic Cancer

There are two basic types of pancreatic cancer. The most aggressive form is adenocarcinoma, which develops in the cells that produce pancreatic enzymes (these enzymes help digest proteins, fats, and carbohydrates and eliminate toxins from your body).

"About 95 percent of pancreatic cancers develop in the enzyme-producing cells that synthesize the main digestive enzymes of the intestinal tract," Dr. Gonzalez explains. "About five percent are developed in the endocrine component of the pancreas. The pancreas not only produces enzymes, but also produces hormones like insulin and glucagon. Cancer can develop in the insulin or other hormone-producing cells, but it's much less common. They tend to be a little less aggressive – the average survival for carcinoma of the enzyme-producing cells is probably three to six months."

Steve Jobs had this latter version of pancreatic cancer; islet cell carcinoma, the technical term for cancer of the hormone producing cells of the pancreas.

"He didn't have the most aggressive form," Dr. Gonzalez says. 

"... [H]e's had it for many years. He had a liver transplant in Memphis about two years ago. Again, he was very secretive about what was going on... [I]t must have meant he had a metastasis in the liver. First, he had to be treated with immunosuppressants. Whenever you have a transplanted organ, your body will tend to reject it, so you have to suppress your immune system. That's not good when you have a history of cancer, because immunosuppression can stimulate cancer growth since you're suppressing your own immune ability to fight cancer."

It appears Steve Jobs did everything he could, conventionally and alternatively to stay alive. As Dr. Gonzalez states, money certainly wasn't a limiting factor in his treatment.

"A procedure like that can run several hundred thousand dollars, at least. So my assumption, having treated pancreatic cancer for over two decades, he probably had metastasis in the liver, and it was a somewhat desperate attempt to try to keep it under control, although it would be ultimately futile. There's always the possibility of some kind of liver failure for reasons other than cancer that might have led him to a liver transplant, such as a medication reaction, hepatitis C from transfusion or something. But again, the reasons have never been publicly released, so we don't know. But most likely, he had metastasis in the liver."

Many Cancer Patients Shun Natural Cancer Treatment Options

According to Dr. Gonzalez, Jobs was seeing an acupuncturist who was very anxious for him to contact Dr. Gonzalez for advice. Dr. Gonzalez has been successfully treating cancer patients for over two decades.

"One of my great patients is a fellow from Michigan who had islet cell carcinoma that, at the time of diagnosis in 1995, had already metastasized to his liver. He went to the Mayo clinic, where everything was confirmed; he had CAT scans and biopsies... To the Mayo clinic's credit... if they know that a therapy isn't going to be useful, they don't promote it, whereas a lot of oncologists will promote therapies that are worthless.

The Mayo clinic told him chemo wouldn't do anything for him... There was really nothing they could do. He started with me in 1995, shortly after his diagnosis. He's alive and well now, 16 years later. CAT scans beginning around 2000 showed total resolution of his big tumors. He had a huge tumor in the pancreas -- it must have been around 6 centimeters. And then he had a big tumor, right under the liver. All these are gone."

Celebrity Patients and 'Star' Oncologists

Jobs is not the only celebrity who did everything he could through the conventional paradigm, which tragically has an abysmal success rate.

"Michael Landon actually did consult with me," Dr. Gonzalez says, "but he never did the therapy. His press agent, Harry Flynn, became a very good friend. Harry and I remain friends to this day, and this goes back to 20 years ago. As soon as a successful celebrity gets cancer, the conventional predators come out of the woodwork-and they say that alternative doctors are sitting there like predators, trying to lure unsuspecting cancer patients into their lairs. You know, I've been in the alternative world for a long time, and I've come out of this very conventional research. But I don't see a whole of that in the alternative world.

What I do see is conventional doctors doing exactly what they criticize in alternative doctors. Landon was treated by an "eminent oncologist" from Cedars-Sinai, who held a press conference. The first thing conventional doctors do when they get a celebrity is to hold a press conference. To me it's almost like narcissism, just to show how important they are with all these celebrities coming to them. This is even if they know they can't do anything. He gave Landon an experimental chemo, but he was dead in three months."

As Dr. Gonzalez points out, conventional doctors can fail miserably and still be considered heroes. Alternative doctors, even the most successful ones, are still looked upon with great suspicion if not disdain. Upon Landon's death, his oncologist held another press conference, and Landon's widow was impressed with how "hard" his doctor had worked to treat her dying husband.

"You see, when a conventional oncologist loses a celebrity patient, they portray him as a hero fighting this terrible disease against the enormous odds; working late into the night trying to keep the celebrity alive," Dr. Gonzalez says. "But when an alternative practitioner loses a patient, they consider him a sleazy quack getting money from unsuspecting cancer victims.

... The same thing was true, more recently, with Patrick Swayze. He had a very aggressive pancreatic cancer. Stanford oncologists doing his treatment held press conferences routinely... filled with this kind of joyful optimism that "they're going to help." He was gone in 18 months. Friends of his are actually patients of mine, but he absolutely had no interest in alternative medicine. He was very conventional – used "the best doctors" from Stanford."

Misplaced Blame-The Case of Steve McQueen and Dr. Kelley

Dr. Gonzalez' mentor, Dr. Kelley (who developed the cancer program Dr. Gonzalez now uses), treated Steve McQueen. McQueen ultimately died, although he lasted almost a year under Dr. Kelley's care.

"He was terminal when he came to Dr. Kelley," Dr. Gonzalez says. "He had failed radiation, failed immunotherapy. He had been misdiagnosed for a year. The reason he ended up with Stage 4 mesothelioma is because he was misdiagnosed by his fancy conventional doctors in Southern California.

Then they gave him radiation – there's not a study in the history of the world showing that radiation helps in mesothelioma; they gave it anyway. Then they gave him immunotherapy. There's not a study in the history of the world saying that immunotherapy helps in mesothelioma. They did it anyway. Then he was dying and he went to see Kelley. He died, and Kelley got all the blame-not the doctors who misdiagnosed him! In fact when you read the newspaper articles, there are still articles about how Dr. Kelley killed McQueen.

No, cancer killed McQueen.

You see, an oncologist at Sloan-Kettering can do a bone marrow transplant on celebrity patients. They die, and he's written up like a hero... Kelley tries to help after conventional doctors failed miserably and misdiagnosed him, and McQueen lived longer than he should. (He was a half-compliant patient – he continued to smoke, drink, and eat ice cream.) I told Kelley when I first met him, "The biggest mistake you've made with McQueen is you took him as a patient. You should have told him to hit the trail."

Dr. Kelley is now dead. But 30 years later, he still gets blamed for McQueen's death. About two or three years ago, there was an Op-Ed piece in the Wall Street Journal attacking unconventional cancer therapy. They talked about McQueen, and how Kelley killed him. ... Conventional oncologists lose patients every day, and no one says they're murdering anybody. Instead they're considered heroes for trying so hard."

As Dr. Gonzalez says, it's not even a double standard; it's like being in an alternative Universe. If you're a conventional oncologist, you can do no wrong, you're lauded as a hero despite your failures, and you make a lot of money making them. Meanwhile, alternative practitioners may succeed again and again, and still be considered dangerous quacks. This is a mindset that has absolutely nothing to do with scientific validity, objectivity, or evaluation of data. It really falls into a category more reminiscent of religious fervor.

Conventional Medicine as a Religion

So, how did we get to this point? Why does this situation exist when it's so illogical?

"Conventional academic medicine is the last religion left in America," Dr. Gonzalez says.

"So the way you have to look at medicine is not as a scientific profession, but rather a religious profession... It has its irrational beliefs. It has its own special language. It has its tools, it has its rituals. ... The fact that they don't make us better is ignored. Landon died, Patrick Swayze died, Linda McCartney died; I could list 20 celebrities who are dead because they went the conventional route. Why didn't they do my therapy?

Because I don't have a temple. I don't even own a white coat... Michael Landon picked that up right away. In fact, his press agent, Harry Flynn, wanted him to come and see me... [But] one of Landon's comments about me was that I "wasn't fancy enough." So he went to the priesthood. He went to Cedars-Sinai."

Meanwhile, Dr. Gonzalez has patients who were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at the same time as Michael Landon, who are still alive today. His oldest survivor began the program in 1988.

"We have multiple patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer who have done well," Dr. Gonzalez says. "It's interesting: I do have very world-renowned celebrities as patients. But no one knows who they are; no one knows they have cancer. The reason for that is because they didn't die, and we don't hold press conferences. They're doing their program and doing well with their lives.

We tell our patients: don't make cancer your life. Move on with your life. So they're back acting in movies, doing talk shows and that kind of stuff. No one knows they even had cancer. And that's fine with me. Some of them keep it secret because of the career thing, and they don't want the publicity. I understand that. So my successful patients who are celebrities, nobody knows who they are because they got well and they're just doing their job."

Now, it's important to stress that this is not a conspiracy.

The physicians who promote the conventional approach do so because they truly believe it's the right thing to do; the only thing that has any chance of working. Healing cancer with foods and coffee enemas seems ludicrous when compared to the most advanced drug cocktails. If the most potent toxins can't kill the cancer, how in the world could you get rid of the cancer with nutrients? They've bought the conventional paradigm hook line and sinker, and they promote it not just for their patients, but for themselves and their families as well. And they suffer the same consequences as their patients.

"They grow up with the bias that drugs are the way to go. It's how they're trained; it's imprinted in their brain in medical school. It's like mind control – it's what they believe. They just can't believe anything else. They go to their graves believing it – often to their discredit, unfortunately.

Many conventional physicians are also in just as poor a health as their patients. However, there are signs that the tide is slowly about to shift.

"We get calls from doctors now, asking us about nutrition and what supplements they should take," Dr. Gonzalez says. "There's been a big change in the last few years. Fifteen years ago it didn't happen, and now it's starting to happen."

Sources:

Fraga, Kaleena. "Inside Steve Jobs' Death — And The Bizarre 'Cures' For Cancer That May Have Hastened It." AllThatsInteresting.com, September 24, 2021, https://allthatsinteresting.com/steve-jobs-death.

https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/10/09/dr-nicholas-gonzalez-on-steve-jobs.aspx

Related: Steve Jobs alternative cancer treatment