The type of pancreatic cancer is caused by an islet cell neuroendocrine tumor.
Jobs was reported to have undergone a liver transplant in 2009 to fight off the spread of the neuroendocrine tumor. Jobs has never publicly stated the reason for his liver transplant.
Dr. Simon Lo, director of pancreatic and biliary diseases at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles said the most likely serious complication after Jobs’ liver transplant would have been further spread of the cancer, which could have forced Jobs to leave his position permanently. Lo has not treated Jobs.
Lo said a recent study showed about three-quarters of patients who got a liver transplant because of cancer saw their cancer return within two to five years. The cancer can return to the liver or spread to other organs in the body.
Jobs may be “confronting both the liver transplant related specific problems, as well as the cancer itself,” Lo said. “Whenever you put patients on immunosuppressant medications, there’s always a risk that it could take away natural resistance, so the cancer could grow faster.”
Neuroendocrine tumors are more easily treated and less aggressive.
