How Bad is Steve Jobs Health?

January 16th, 2009

I know you’re getting plenty of info and speculation on this topic all over the Web in the last 24 hours, but the topic remains extremely important to the future of publishing and I feel the need to continue to provide some pointers.

Today’s is from the Wall Street Journal (subscription probably required for this story).

Under the blog title “How Ill is Steve Jobs?” staff writer Julia Angwin notes:

“The Los Angeles Times was even more definitive stating that ‘hormonal imbalances are common in people who have an active neuroendocrine tumor but would not be expected in someone who has been cured of the cancer,’ according to Dr. Selwyn M. Vickers, chairman of the department of surgery at the University of Minnesota.

“‘If the tumor has come back after it has been removed, that is a sign the tumor is aggressive and growing,” Vickers told the Los Angeles Times. She said the survival rate for a person with a recurrence of pancreatic neuroendocrine cancer is one to two years.

“Now that Jobs has announced a sudden medical leave, experts say those dire predictions were likely correct. Michael D. Jensen, an endocrinologist at the Mayo Clinic, told the Wall Street Journal that ‘I would be hard pressed to think of something [other than a recurrence of cancer] that would require a five month leave of absence.'”

This is indeed troubling news. I’ve worked with Apple since 1987. We’ve had our ups and downs (mainly when Steve was away). So no blame there. Steve Jobs is a hero of mine, as he is for so many others.

Best wishes to him in these challenging times.