Apple co-founder and longtime CEO Steve Jobs died last week fromrespiratory arrest related to a recurrence of pancreatic cancer thatspread to other organs, according to a copy of his death certificatemade public yesterday.
The certificate says Jobs had a metastatic pancreas neuroendocrinetumor for the past five years, according to reports by BloombergNews and The Associated Press. Jobs was 56 when he died Wednesday, Oct. 5,at his home in Palo Alto, Calif. Neither Apple nor his family disclosedthe cause of his death and most of the details of his failing healthover the past several years are still not publicly known. According tothe death certificate, no autopsy was performed.
Jobs was buried Friday in a small private ceremony. The arrangementsand the location were not made public.
There are two main types of pancreatic cancer and Jobs suffered fromthe rarer form, according to Dr. Mansur Shomali, with Union MemorialHospital’s Diabetes & Endocrine Center, quoted in a BaltimoreSun story. Shomali says the pancreas has two parts, theexocrine, which makes digestive enzymes, and the endocrine, which makescells that produce hormones such as insulin. These endocrine cells cancluster and form tumors, which can be benign or cancerous.
Exocrine cancer is the more common, and more deadly, form of pancreaticcancer. Shomali has seen only one patient in the past year with theform of cancer that killed Jobs. When caught early, the tumors aretreatable, he says. Some tumors can be very aggressive but most arebenign and don’t spread or metastasize, according to the Baltimore Sunstory. The survival rates for this rarer form of pancreatic cancer are”many times the survival rates” for the more common exocrine pancreaticcancer, according to the Sun.
Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2004 and spoke of asuccessful treatment and remission during a moving and unusuallypersonal speechto the 2005 graduating class at Stanford University. He died aday after Apple introduced the iPhone 4S.
Details of Jobs’ treatment are not publicly known, including why he hada 2009 liver transplant, according to the Baltimore Sun story, whichreported that Shomali says he has never had a patient who required one.
Jobs took a third, and final, medical leave of absence from Apple inearly 2011, handing over the CEO duties to the man who became hishand-picked successor, Tim Cook.
In a company-wide internal memo emailed to employees andobtained by various newsorganizations, Cook detailed plans for a memorial service toformally honour Jobs in the amphitheatre at Apple’s Cupertino, Calif.campus on Oct. 19. It reads:
“Team,
Like many of you, I have experienced the saddest days of my lifetimeand shed many tears during the past week. But I’ve found some comfortin the extraordinary number of tributesand condolences from people all over the world who weretouched by Steve and his genius. And I’ve found comfort in both tellingand listening to stories about Steve.
Although many of our hearts are still heavy, we are planning acelebration of his life for Apple employees to take time to rememberthe incredible things Steve achieved in his life and the many ways hemade our world a better place. The celebration will be held onWednesday, October 19, at 10 a.m. in the outdoor amphitheater on theInfinite Loop campus. We’ll have more details on AppleWeb closer to thedate, including arrangements for employees outside of Cupertino.
I look forward to seeing you there.
Tim”
It’s unclear whether the event will be streamed to the public.
The Oct. 19 remembrance of Jobs isn’t the only one planned for nextweek. EntertainmentWeekly reports that the Discovery Channel will air adocumentary special called “iGenius: How Steve Jobs Changed the World.”The one-hour program will be hosted by “Mythbusters” stars Adam Savageand Jamie Hyneman and will premiere Oct. 16.