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Preview: Steve Jobs

October 20, 2011 11:10 AM

Apple CEO Steve Jobs refused to allow surgeons to perform what could have been life-saving surgery on his pancreatic cancer, says his biographer Walter Isaacson. Hear more of Isaacson's revelations about Jobs on Sunday at 7 p.m. ET/PT. Steve Kroft reports.

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by factorfiction11 November 14, 2011 5:47 PM EST
I do believe that people need to be their own advocate and research what is the best form of treatment for them. Steve Jobs chose the non traditional route for himself based on his beliefs and maybe his arrogance- it was no one else's choice but his.
Unfortunately, modern and traditional medicine with this rare and uncommon type of pancreatic cancer has a pretty good cure rate unlike the cure rate for the more common deadly form.(like Patrick Swayze had)
If Steve Jobs goal was to survive this disease then why didn't he look at the statistical evidence that suggests surgery would have cured him?
I think pharmaceutical companies can be sleazy but I also believe there are some pretty sleazy holistic cons out there. Those who sell herbs and vitamins and juicers and whatever else also have a bias that may not be in the consumers best interest.
If you do a quick search of alternative cancer cures, there seems to be an abundance of claims that target specifically the hopeless pancreatic cancer patients. Hmmmm... now who's the villain?
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by cunchok November 1, 2011 3:13 PM EDT
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/01/health/hindsight-is-kind-to-steve-jobss-decision-to-delay-surgery.html
For too many days in various media and Internet forums Job's story has been used to falsely make a case against 'alternative' medicine. However, seeking justification for an ideology in this fashion is a sign of irrationality and attachment, not of sound medical or scientific judgment.
Unfortunately, many laypeople (incl. journalists), and some in healthcare, have a magical view of the efficacy of biomedicine, esp. regarding the diagnosis and treatment of diseases like cancer. But many laypeople and non-ideological scientists, MD's & alternative med. professionals have a more rational view.
The above cited NYT article makes clear that Job's individual case makes for no absolute conclusions, esp. regarding the value of biomedicine or of 'alternative medicine. Whether Jobs would or would not have lived longer and better if he had surgery is unknown. The survival rate for liver/pancreatic cancer using biomedicine is far from good.
The fact is that people have treated many diseases with diet and/or herbs, with pharmaceuticals and surgery and with combos of both. With each of these three approaches there have been both successes and failures.
The best solution to any given health problem is an individualized diagnosis often by more than one approach (i.e., including alternative medical disciplines) and the use of whatever healthcare approaches can, individually or in a complementary fashion, lead to better health with a relative minimum of risk and cost.
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by marmauas October 24, 2011 9:55 AM EDT
I agree with comments that stress the arrogance of the interviewer. Steve jobs wanted it like that. That was his mode de jouissance, as Lacan would say. You dont take another person to be as you think he/she should be.
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by Durt_Bagg October 23, 2011 6:33 PM EDT
Had a doctor friend who decided not to have a heart valve replaced, instead took too "healing" with diet, herbs, etc. Whether or not, like Steve, his life would have been extended we'll never know, but I miss him.
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by perspective123 October 23, 2011 5:36 PM EDT
Wow... absolutely stunning arrogance by the the interviewer, interviewee and many of the comments here. That's the type of arrogance that leads to war and the downturn of the economy. None of the opinions are backed by any substance at all except a complete idiotic view that the orthodox always know better and any alternative viewpoint is stupid. I'm glad that Steve Jobs didn't have that attitude in technology and business. If you apply the success and impact that Steve Jobs and Apple had, you'd be thinking outside the box when it comes to health. Now 2.5 Trillion is spent every year on healthcare in America and there are more health problems than ever... does that not tell you something? The health system needs innovation and thinking outside the box - the opposite of all the ignorance here.
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by Samlv October 23, 2011 3:13 PM EDT
Good evidence that wishing is not curative.
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by awareness_power October 23, 2011 3:36 AM EDT
Mr. Kroft - you best edit your powerfully, ill-advised opinion about Steve Jobs being stupid. This is a rare, yet potentially career-threatening mistake by a decorated journalist who should know better.

Pancreatic cancer is a disease in which common methods have failed to provide significant, life-saving results for the majority of those inflicted. Jobs' legacy was to defy the "definition of insanity" - that is, to continue performing the same tasks and expect different results. He chose to do what he felt was most appropriate for his body - to call that "stupid" is insulting to him, his family, his friends and his supporters, not to mention the millions of people fighting cancer the ways they feel works best for their bodies.
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by roxylu October 22, 2011 1:57 PM EDT
I find this article and news so strange and clearly bised, as an older article from 18th of January, published by CNN, clearly mentions that Steve Jobs went to Switzerland to undergo radiological treatment (radiotherapy).Please have a look at this link: http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/01/18/steve-jobs-went-to-switzerland-in-search-of-cancer-treatment/.
So to say that he refused cancer treatment looking for alternative medicine and that that is the cause of his death is more of a propaganda for Big Pharma.
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by elsie61 October 22, 2011 1:15 PM EDT
I noticed alot of pharmaceutical ads on the sponsor side of this page. I also see perhaps a dear friend who is grieving for a beloved friend and desperately trying to find answers--causes-effects for a devastating illness, in which about less than 5% survive(2001 data, could be better odds now). I see 9 months as a very short amount of time to exercise any diet regime that will cause the cessation of a cancer as aggressive as pancreatic. I see the pharm-establishment trying to denounce a form of medicine which has existed for thousands of years in a multiplicity of cultures, and from who the pharmaceutical Co.'s has unabashedly infringed on "Copyright" to form their own versions of "root/vegetable" plant-based derived pharmaceuticals of which hundreds of dollars are charge for ingredients found at any good vegetable store. I see an industry that releases costly pharmaceutical products without extensive, far reaching clinical studies, that often consist of clinical cases studies of less than 100, sometimes as little as 10 people before unleashing it on the unsuspecting public through glossy ads and promotions that are more about "magical thinking" than scientific fact. I think Steve Job had some valid concerns about the spiritual integrity of mind/soul/body. There have been many who have claimed a spiritual or reality-altering after-effect they've experienced after have been "cracked open". Not to say that surgery has not save countless lives nor to say it does not have its place. But surely to ignore what 1000's of Americans, ad hoc, have found valuable in their health treatment, sounds alot more like the magical thinking on the part of the Pharma industry. Hoping against hope that Complimentary Medicine will go away, if we just ignor it and say it isn't so.

Rest in peace Steve Job, who is to say what could have saved you; surgery, diet started sooner vs later, electromagnetic shielding devices to protect your DNA. I don't think Steve was ignorant about medicine. It was his precise knowledge of the "Voodoo"/haphazard, disconnected, HMO-bottom-line driven nature of how modern medicine is practiced that perhaps drew him to a form of medicine more conducive to synergistically working with ones body. We will never know, though we should, but leave it to the established-fear based order deflect focus and to find Steve Job's death as an opportunity to advance their agenda of discrediting alternative forms of medicine. What is it they say, oh yes "Never waste a catastrophe or tragedy" to advance your cause.
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by CreaTrish October 22, 2011 1:07 AM EDT
To Steve Jobs, you were and are a shining light. You stand with the greatest minds in history and you are missed. Thank you for all the fantastic gifts you left behind...
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