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Exact details of the alternative natural and traditional therapies tried by Steve Jobs before he underwent surgery in 2004 and eventually died of pancreatic cancer earlier this month have not been disclosed. (A representative from Apple declined to comment on any aspect of the Apple co-founder's illness.) He reportedly restricted his diet to just fruits or just fruits and vegetables, tried out something called hydrotherapy and consulted psychics. In any case, a mounting body of scientific and anecdotal reports provides compelling evidence about the potential impact, both positive and negative, of so-called complementary practices on the health and longevity of cancer patients following their diagnosis. And, although Jobs's unconventional early-treatment choices may not have done much to stave off the spread of deadly cancer cells in his case, they provide an opportunity to discuss what makes cancer grow and how to stop it.
Jobs had a rare form of pancreatic cancer known as pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor (pNET). Accounting for about 1 percent of all pancreatic cancers, pNET is a cancer of the endocrine cells, known clinically as the islets of Langerhans, which exist in small clusters throughout the pancreas. These cells produce hormones such as insulin, which lowers blood sugar, and glucagon, which increases it.
Unlike the vast majority of pancreatic cancers (known as pancreatic adenocarcinomas) of the ductal part of the pancreas, pNET is not always deadly. These cancer cells tend to be slow growing, and so the cancer does not spread to other sites in the body as quickly. That means surgical removal of the tumor can sometimes be curative. For patients whose disease is detected while it's still confined to the pancreas, the five-year survival rate is 87 percent—in other words, the majority of patients live for quite a while.
For patients in whom this cancer has spread outside the pancreas, the median survival is 27 months. "That said, there are groups of patients with metastatic disease who can live much longer," says James Yao, associate professor and deputy chairman in gastrointestinal medical oncology at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, "some even up to 5 to 10 years."
It's impossible to know whether surgery would have been curative if Jobs had undergone the procedure at the time of his diagnosis. But what about the role of acupuncture and other naturopathic approaches he tried? Could they have extended his life and improved his health or had the opposite effect?
Acupuncture has gained traction in Western medicine as a helpful complementary component to cancer care. Some clinical studies have confirmed the efficacy of this traditional Chinese medicine approach, in which needles are shallowly inserted at different points on the body, in diminishing the nausea, pain and fatigue that often follow chemotherapy, radiation and surgery, the mainstays of modern cancer treatment.
But although it may have contributed to overall well-being, acupuncture is unlikely to have had an impact on the tumor itself. "It is not enough to change the course of the disease," says Lowell Kobrin, a medical doctor who now focuses on acupuncture and herbal medicine at Northbend Medical Center in Coos Bay, Ore. "It could not affect the cancer itself."
As Tim Birdsall, vice president of integrative medicine at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America, explains it, cancer is a disease in which the cells become less and less responsive to their external environment. Multiple mutations in DNA—specifically, abnormalities in the p21 and p53 genes, among other changes—stop the process of apoptosis, or programmed cell death, that normal cells undergo. In addition to becoming immortal, cancer cells invade the surrounding tissue, rendering it nonfunctional.
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31 Comments
Add CommentYou don't actually draw a conclusion here but reading between the lines, the treatment at best did nothing and at worst delayed time for critical treatment.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt would appear to me that it was 'mistake' not to give established medicine it's chance early enough in parallel with alternatives. I really do sympathise with his views. But he had a responsibility to his family greater than to himself. He should have done both.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhile saying that I feel I should really not be criticising a guy who has done so much and given us so much. I mourn his passing. RIP.
Steve Jobs gave us so much of his life. No matter what alternative medicine or alleopathic medicine did or didn't do for him, he did exactly what HE wanted to do and that is all that counts!! God Bless Steve!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMost of the time alt med nonsense is just a tax on the gullible, but in this case it may have gotten Jobs killed. Had he not waited a year to treat cancer with real medicine he might have gone into remission. You gotta catch cancer early. If you're going to use alt med (even though virtually all of it that's been tested has been shown to be worthless) at least do it along with real medicine.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisVery poor arguments are given in favor of alternative medicine at the end:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1) "scientific evidence confirming that benefit may be elusive for philosophical reasons" - what does this mean exactly? Is it working or not? Does it cure or not?
2)"thousands of years of Eastern medical history" - for thousands of years we didn't know about Germs and viruses, and where thinking earth is flat at the center of the universe, so what? does it make it true?
3) "individual patients" meaning - Anecdotes... anecdotes can't prove a thing. Half of the times I toss a coin it falls on "head"' so I have many Anecdotes proving that a coin always falls on head, right?
4) "The proof is that so many of my colleagues continue to refer their patients to me" - what does this prove? a quarter of the population believes in Astrology too, so what? Does the belief alone make it True?
Evidence please! research. not pleading and excuses!
I would expect a higher level of arguments from "Scientific American".
All cells in the body are fueled by sugars not just cancerous cells.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisShow me one person on the planet who contracted cancer eating fruit and vegetables...
This is nothing more than marketing for expensive ineffective Chemo.
Cancer is proliferation. How do you stop proliferation from continuing to go haywire? Well that's a question we would all benefit from having a more specific answer to, but for the time being your choices are limited to:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1.) kill the cells
2.) stop the growth of those cells
3.) slow the growth of those cells so that the rate of proliferation is less than rate of cell death for those cells.
4.) increase the rate of malicious cell growth at an increasing rate.
5.) take some whacky formulation that's been "studied"
6.) pray
7.) surgical removal
8.) do nothing
I like Steve Jobs, but for such a visionary his decision for treatment had no foresight. Receiving such a diagnosis is truly horrifying and everyone has their own ways of dealing with it. I respect Steve and hope that this decision was based on his feelings and his thoughts, and not based on some wackjob homeopath.
Maybe you could re-read the article and take special note of Dr Yao's comments.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI don't know how gullible Steve Jobs was (I'd guess 'not very'), but medicine of any school for the most part is taxing, and even on the 'rational.'
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is a very poorly challenging article. Jessica is one of the best writers for SA. I am surprised she did not even jump on the cancer loves sugar myth which is on every cancer hospital website. Basically all cells cancer and regular need sugar to maintain and produce energy. Restricting sugar totally will make you ill and just have your body turn to other sources to get it. It doesn`t matter what kind of sugar it is . Here is a quote from Junk Science. "Just like healthy cells, cancer cells don’t care where the sugar comes from. And if you stopped eating completely, your body would then start tearing down fat and muscle stores for energy." Mostly all the alt. treatments mentioned have no benefit or empirical evidence to back them up other than maybe the Vitamin D research which is recent. No critical thinking skills are used in the conclusion of the article but instead we get length of time as an excuse for why some treatments may be valid. Big disappointment this was published . Should have had Shermer write this article.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisU get the point,:)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf Jobs had something called Common Sense then he may well have alive and well .
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisConsulting psychics shows he was a bit nutty.
The guy Birdsall doesn't sound like a quack, although "integrative medicine" for which he is responsible sounds like quackery.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt would have been interesting to know what his qualifications and authority are to speak on the matter.
Almost certainly shortened it. "Alternative medicine" is shorthand for "haven't tested it", "have tested but it failed so we threw the results out", or "Would you like some snake oil with that?".
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe're forgetting one thing while trashing the 'alternatives' - what else is there?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDo 'official' medicine and pharmaceutical companies have a cure for cancer?
They don't, but hey - they can always yell "nothing else works", although they don't work too.
Every day people are dying in hospitals or at home, tortured by 'legal' drugs - which are nothing but toxins, plain and simple.
They are not cure - they are poisons, meant to kill your cancer cells faster then your normal cells. I know it all too well from close personal experience.
So you say depriving your body of sugar would make you weak? And chemo would make you strong?? Come on.. wake up. Let people live as they want and die as they choose.
Actually, since both official and alternative medicine HAVE NO CURE for cancer, I'd at least expect from reasonable governments to go for alternative ones, since that's much cheaper for the rest of the population; but the problem is that when folks stop paying for expensive 'sci-tech' cures (that need $ millions to be made) - then some extremely rich people would get extremely less rich.
This article is just a clarion call for the alt. med. haters to let off some steam. Little substance in the body or in the comments. To lump all complementary cancer treatments into the same category and pronounce them useless is simple-minded. Admittedly, there are many therapies that have no evidence basis. But there are many that do. Responsible complementary med practitioners counsel for concurrent conventional and alternative treatment.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI can't claim that natural therapies can cure cancer. Neither can conventional meds. It is a matter of survival time. Would Jobs have survived longer had he taken a different course? All the opinions provided are speculative at best, projections of evident prejudice at worst.
Is there any evidence to show that Steve Jobs' intention was to seek CURE by the alternative therapies - or was it to improve the quality of the remainder of his life. Guessing at whether his life was extended or reduced by this action is particularly nonsensical if we do not know his intentions.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAn analysis of the fate of cancer patients that made use of alternative medicines was published recently, its results clearly showing that people that took herbal remedies had a worse survival and worse cancer specific survival than persons just on oncologist's or other doctor's care. May be Steve Jobs had no harm from this kind of therapy, but his case can be the exception rather than the rule. Beware of the dog !. Salut +
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWellness doubles or triples the life expectancy of Cancer patients, although it needs to done right not sloppy. MD oncology is so bad that now they recommend to men to not get tested for prostate cancer so that they won't get treated by MD oncology...read the science not the AMA Drug Company lies.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCancer cells are too sick to die, the key is the cell membrane and rebuilding the mitochondria...Apoptosis, natural cell death, needs to be restored and then the cancer goes away on its own with Wellness.
Curry is a powerful anti-cancer food, there is only 10% prostate cancers in India compared to USA
If you want to stop the invasive aspect to hormone sensitive Breast or Prostate cancer cells try Modified Citrus Pectin....turn off "wild and crazy" aspect of hormone sensitive cancer cells
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisVitamin D3 is a powerful anti cancer Vitamin/steroid hormone, will prevent mostly all cancers, fact hidden by drug companies and lied about by Government.
Unstable Blood sugar harms every cell in the body and reduces the ability of the immune system. The higher the blood sugar swings the sooner you die...sugar the sweet killer, nobody doubts that except for the food industry proponents and their marketing is changing.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNIH says that iv Vitamin C will selectively kill human cancer cells but not human cells...evidently Scientific American is not doing a very good job of educating its readers about the new shift in Cancer therapy.
The Discovery that Vitamin D3 prevents all kinds of cancer is 30 years old, suppressed by the drug industry
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe Discovery that iv Vitamin C kills cancer, is 30 years old, suppressed by the drug industry and the AMA
The discovery that herbs kill cancer is also suppressed by the drug industry.
The discovery the colorful foods prevent cancer was suppressed but now main stream.
The discovery that trans fats cause cancer is the number 1 reason why we have a cancer pandemic. Eat good fats
I thought hydrotherapy was an elaborate way of having a swim, fruit and vegetables (particularly apples) are certainly healthy food choices. His form of pancreatic cancer was the best choice but I dont see how this was helped by any of his alternative options. He probably should have foreseen that the psychic path was not particularly fruitful. Remember there is medicine that works and medicine that does not. Given his vast intellect and great legacy it would be good to know more of the thought and support path that delayed his surgery for so long.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhich medicine is the one that works?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDid no one notice that Jobs was standing in front of an audience weeks/months before he passed away? Imagine him doing that while on official meds - chemo etc?
He was smart guy, smarter then most of us readers here - I think he knew well what are his chances either path he took and he took the path that gave him some normal life before he goes.
people are forgetting one fact - the governments, the med care guys - they DO NOT have a cure for cancer. You're going away anyway.
Well, at least in most of cases - some people are strong enough to fight it off.
The conclusion is totally unsupported by the entirety of the article, which makes me suspicious of the way it played down the possible negative effects of Jobs' decision to forego traditional, effective treatments.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI stopped reading at the part where you said acupuncture is a "traditional Chinese medicine approach". "The technology for manufacturing thin steel needles appropriate for acupuncture didn’t exist until 400 years ago." quoted from http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/puncturing-the-acupuncture-myth/
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHow is this article even allowed to be published in a Scientific magazine.
The "discovery" that Vitamin C can be used in cancer treatments is from a poor study. Although a Nobel Laureate was involved he was not used to clinical trials. The trial performed has been shown to be very poor.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAll trials that have been performed since have not found the same finding that were found in that 30 year old study.
The problem with this article is that the only judge on the efficacy of the alternative approaches is what western clinical medicine says is right. For all any of you know, Jobs could have easily died on the operating table.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou can't judge a procedure compared to a competing procedure based solely on the inbred prejudices of the competing procedures.
There is no such thing as "alternative" medicine. If an "alternative" treatment can be shown by rigorous studies to be more, or at least as effective as "conventional medicine", it is no longer "alternative" It should then be the proven treatment of choice. "Complementary" treatments, perhaps, but "alternative", no.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd let us not overlook the power of the placebo and positive suggestion, which can enhance "conventional" treatments. As an anesthesiologist I have seen many cases where good communication skills, explanations of the drug effects which can be expected, the procedure to be carried out, and "talking the patient down" results in lowered drug dosages, faster recoveries, and less post-op problems.
Yes, Steve Jobs would likely have had few problems from his "alternative" treatments. The problem, and the tragedy, was that proven therapies were not also employed from the start.
Quincybones
This article should have stated that 15 percent of cancers are caused by parasites. I think that many more cancers are caused by parasites, but doctors usually do not look for parasites. For example, if a cancer is caused by a parasite, simple alternative medicine such as collodial silver or silver salt, can kill the parasites. Conventional cancer cures usually ignore parasites, but conventional cures such as surgery often work because removing the cancer also removes the parasitic infestation.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis article should have stated that flax seed oil is better than fish oil. For example, flax seed oil is usually cold pressed and not cooked like fish oil. And, flax oil has more omega-3.
"... acupuncture is unlikely to have had an impact on the tumor itself."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDuh. Why is the word "Scientific" still in the title of this magazine? There is no scientific concensus (much less a single duplicated rigorous study) showing that acupuncture has ANY impact on anything beyond placebo.
One of the best studies on acupuncture, funded by the NIH and published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, showed that poking people with toothpicks was as effective as acupuncture in reducing back pain.
In a real tortured twist of logic, this study concluded NOT that acupucture didn't work beyond placebo, but that acupuncture DOES work, even if it's the poking people with toothpicks kind!
For god's sake people (and "Scientific" American), physical human contact can reduce back pain, whether it's a hug, a needle, a toothpick, or a left hook to the temple!