Steve Jobs Undergoes Surgery For Cancer

[Joe Matt]

From a company wide email...

Team,
I have some personal news that I need to share with you, and I wanted you to hear it directly from me. This weekend I underwent a successful surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from my pancreas. I had a very rare form of pancreatic cancer called an islet cell neuroendocrine tumor, which represents about 1% of the total cases of pancreatic cancer diagnosed each year, and can be cured by surgical removal if diagnosed in time (mine was). I will not require any chemotherapy or radiation treatments.

The far more common form of pancreatic cancer is called adenocarcinoma, which is currently not curable and usually carries a life expectancy of around one year after diagnosis. I mention this because when one hears "pancreatic cancer" (or Googles it), one immediately encounters this far more common and deadly form, which, thank god, is not what I had.

I will be recuperating during the month of August, and expect to return to work in September. While I'm out, I've asked Tim Cook to be responsible for Apple's day to day operations, so we shouldn't miss a beat. I'm sure I'll be calling some of you way too much in August, and I look forward to seeing you in September.

Steve

PS: I'm sending this from my hospital bed using my 17-inch PowerBook and an Airport Express.

Our thoughts are with him.

[Billfred]

Wow, talk about a lucky draw. (I realize that it's pretty bad calling a tumor lucky, but considering the alternative...)

Here's hoping he gets better--in the meantime, I get a strange feeling that he'll be plotting and scheming, like all great minds do when they can't do anything else (and sometimes when they can).

[Eugenia Gabrielov]

I wish him the best. Cancer is always a difficult subject, and I'm glad his family does not have to deal with that sorrow of losing someone to it. I love Apple...