How Might Steve Jobs’ Liver Transplant Be Affecting His Health? A University of Chicago Medical Center transplantation expert explains the ins and outs of liver transplant complications and Jobs’ rare form of pancreatic cancer By Katherine Harmon
A host of potential complications could explain Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ newly announced medical leave of absence. The health of the 55-year-old tech executive has seemed tenuous to many observers since his previous liver transplant and bout with pancreatic cancer, and some doctors are speculating that medications could be contributing to his ailments.
Jobs’ liver transplant, reportedly completed in March 2009 at a Memphis, Tenn., hospital, seemed at the time to be successful. Liver transplants, though relatively common, come with a host of potential long-term health risks and complications, including troubles caused by the immunosuppressant drugs that patients often have to take to prevent their bodies from rejecting the organ.
Liver transplants can be used to help combat islet cell neuroendocrine tumors—the rare but often treatable form of pancreatic cancer that Jobs was diagnosed with—if the cancer has spread only to the liver. Because the number of pancreatic cancer patients who fit the liver transplant profile is so small, data have been scant on the success of this procedure in fending off recurrence. A 2010 review paper reported that with a liver transplant five-year survival rates in neuroendocrine tumors range from 36 percent to 80 percent depending on the study. But a small 2007 study found that only 20 percent of patients who had had a liver and multivisceral transplantation were still disease free after five years.
Jobs’ tumor was surgically removed in July 2004. On January 5, 2009, he announced that he was being treated for a hormone imbalance, and starting January 14 of that year, he took a medical leave of absence. He returned to work in June 2009.
During Jobs’ current absence he will remain “involved in major strategic decisions,” but his day-to-day duties will be handled by the company’s chief operating officer, Tim Cook, according to a release from the company. The leave’s duration is unspecified, and spokespeople for Apple declined to provide additional information about its length or the reasons for it. “I love Apple so much and hope to be back as soon as I can,” Jobs wrote in Monday’s message. Apple stock has dropped slightly in the wake of the announcement.
Is Steve Jobs likely to be able to get back on the job soon? Scientific American spoke with the director of University of Chicago Medical Center Transplant Center, J. Michael Millis about the ways Jobs’ liver surgery and cancer diagnosis might currently be affecting the Apple executive’s health.
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