Hormone Imbalance
I have given more than my all to Apple for the past 11 years, Jobs wrote in the letter, which was addressed to the Apple Community. Now Ive said more than I wanted to say, and all that I am going to say, about this.
Jobs said in 2004 he had undergone surgery for a form of pancreatic cancer called islet cell neuroendocrine tumor. Neuroendocrine tumor is less common than typical pancreatic cancer, which kills more than 30,000 people in the U.S. annually, doctors said.
The pancreas contains islet cells, which make the hormones insulin and glucagon, helping keep blood sugar levels within a normal range, said Raji Annaswamy, an endocrinologist at Harvard Medical School in Boston. Neuroendocrine islet cell tumors can cause overproduction of either one, or other powerful hormones such as somatostatin or gastrin, which are involved in digestion.
Slow-Growing Tumors
An imbalance in any of these hormones might lead to weight loss because of abnormalities in glucose and protein metabolism, she said.
Tumors such as the one Jobs was thought to have are usually slow-growing, compared with typical pancreatic cancers that originate in the organs lining, said Simon Lo, director of the pancreatic and biliary diseases program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Patients whose cancer is diagnosed early and removed may live 10 years or longer, he said.
It all depends on how aggressive the tumor is and how early its treated, Lo said in a telephone interview. Ten years is not unheard of, but that doesnt mean that most people live 10 years. / Bloomberg News
