Martin Varsavsky´s Ruminations

In mid-2004, Jobs announced to his employees that he had been diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in his pancreas.^[117] The prognosis for pancreatic canceris usually very poor; Jobs, however, stated that he had a rare, far less aggressive type known as islet cell neuroendocrine tumor.^[117] Jobs resisted his doctors’ recommendations for evidence-based medical intervention for nine months,^[118] instead consuming a special alternative medicine diet to thwart the disease, before eventually undergoing a pancreaticoduodenectomy (or “Whipple procedure”) in July 2004 that appeared to successfully remove the tumor.^[119][120] Jobs apparently did not require nor receive chemotherapy or radiation therapy.^[117][121] During Jobs’ absence, Timothy D. Cook, head of worldwide sales and operations at Apple, ran the company.^[117]

In early August 2006, Jobs delivered the keynote for Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference. His “thin, almost gaunt” appearance and unusually “listless” delivery,^[122][123] together with his choice to delegate significant portions of his keynote to other presenters, inspired a flurry of media and Internet speculation about his health.^[124] In contrast, according to an Ars Technica journal report, WWDC attendees who saw Jobs in person said he “looked fine”.^[125] Following the keynote, an Apple spokesperson said that “Steve’s health is robust.”^[126]

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