Jobs hid cancer for nine months before seeking treatment, damn
By Ryan Block 
posted March 5th 2008 1:26AM
posted March 5th 2008 1:26AM
CNN has a pretty extensive profile on El Jobso -- the likes of which seem to appear almost monthly these days in the mainstream media publication of your choosing -- but one of the more interesting tidbits is that apparently he sat on his pancreatic cancer for nine friggin' months before seeking treatment back in 2004. To put that in perspective, although his diagnosis was curable at the time, pancreatic cancer is considered to be among the most deadly forms and despite the urgings of the very few friends, family, and associates in the know, Steve apparently sought to cure himself holistically for three quarters -- while everyone else (including Pixar, where he was also CEO) was in the dark. Of course, eventually he gave in and got the surgery he so desperately needed to make his recovery; water under the bridge now, but Apple shareholders certainly must have a feeling or two about Jobs coming so close to the brink.[Thanks, Adhik]
Maybe Steve-O could share some knowledge with Patrick Swayze.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2008-03-05-swayze-side_N.htm?csp=34
To everyone that says holistic medicine is a bunch of crap- have any of you ever tried it? Is it because people in the medical community laugh and shake their head at their mention and you must believe the same? Remember, patient is just another name for customer, and they want to make sure you keep coming back as 'modern medicine' is the only ‘cure’… (Sounds a bit like religion?)
As for this particular situation I think Steve wanted to try an alternative before letting a surgeon traumatize his body with a scalpel- which was his personal (and spiritual) choice. It appears that he kept his condition monitored by a doctor and the treatment was helpful as he is still alive; If he had just ignored his cancer for nine months there is a very slim chance he would be around today.
So is everyone angry because Steve has an obligation to his shareholders to immediately follow the standard medical treatment for any illness and he chose to try something else? Maybe we should also make him convert to Christian as it would also be more acceptable than Buddhism...
This post makes the naive assumption that medicine is a market consumable based on tastes and preferences. The procedures that are chosen in medicine - and the prognosis that accompanies them - are based on the hardest statistical evidence of any research field within biology. Not only do we do primary studies of different interventions - including a plethora of the drugs considered within the pantheon of "alternative" - but we do secondary studies on the statistical efficacy of the primary studies and then we do tertiary studies of how different outcomes and their measured efficacy compare against one another and... well, I think you get the point.
Anyway, my point (which I'm meandering around to) is that supporting holistic, alternative or (God forbid!) homeopathic medicine is pretty much on par with claiming there is no such thing as evolution. While you may believe you're right - spiritually, as your post points out - OVERWHELMING SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE stands in your way. Steve Jobs is an asshole, but I never took him for an idiot.
This makes me think twice about AAPL.