How Steve Jobs regretted delaying his cancer surgery, was bullied and quit church at 13
- New biography by Walter Isaacson out later this month
- Book also reveals Jobs did meet his birth father
- Jobs wondered if God existed more after diagnosis
Last updated at 11:10 PM on 20th October 2011
Steve Jobs regretted his decision to delay cancer surgery in favour of eastern-style remedies.
For months after his pancreatic cancer diagnosis in 2004, the Apple founder tried alternative therapies that may have cost him his long-term health.
Now his biographer Walter Isaacson says that was a decision Mr Jobs came to realize was wrong.
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Deadly delay: Steve Jobs, pictured in June, may have been alive today had he not put off conventional medical treatment in favour of alternative remedies
Mr Isaacson is the only author to whom Mr Jobs gave considerable access, and he conducted more than 40 interviews.
The author will appear in an interview this weekend on 60 Minutes to discuss Jobs and his upcoming book, "Steve Jobs."
Walter Isaacson talking on 60 Minutes
According to Mr Isaacson, Mr Jobs had a 'very slow growing' type of pancreatic cancer 'that can actually be cured,' but still opted not to get the surgery until nine months had gone by and it may have been too late.
He tells Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes: 'I've asked him why he didn't get the operation … and he said, "I didn't want my body to be opened. I didn't want to be violated in that way."
'I think that he kind of felt that if you ignore something, if you don't want something to exist, you can have magical thinking.
'It'd work for him in the past. We talked about this a lot.
'He wanted to talk about it, how he regretted it … I think he felt he should have been operated on sooner.'
The book also details how Steve Jobs was often bullied in school and stopped going to church at the age of 13.
Isaacson says that Jobs used to think there was a 50-50 chance God existed. His cancer diagnosis made the Buddhist think more about the possibility.
Jobs was also against conspicuous consumption, claiming Apple employees turned into 'bizarro people' when they were made rich by their stock.
Another revelation is that Jobs, who was adopted, had actually met his biological father Abdulfattah John Jandali, but had done so before he knew who the man was.
Out next week: Walter Isaacson's book, released on October 24, reveals Jobs did meet his biological father Abdulfattah John Jandali at some point
Jandali made public pleas in recent months for his son, who he said he never wanted to give up, to reach out to him. Jandali said Jobs never did.
Mr Jobs died at the age of 56 earlier this month due to respiratory arrest caused by pancreatic cancer.
His death certificate, released by the Santa Clara County Public Health Department last week, said that Mr Jobs had a 'metastatic pancreas neuroendocrine tumor' and there would not be an autopsy.
Dr Ramzi Amri, a researcher at Harvard Medical School, agreed that Mr Jobs succumbed to the disease more quickly because of his apparent refusal to embrace 'conventional treatment,' especially over the last year, the period when he visibly began to lose weight.
Writing on Quora, a forum frequented by Silicon Valley executives, Dr Amri said: 'It seems that even during this recurrent phase, Mr Jobs opted to dedicate his time to Apple as the disease progressed, instead of opting for chemotherapy or any other conventional treatment.'
The rapid advance of the cancer caused Mr Jobs to undergo an operation known as a 'Whipple procedure' in which he had his pancreas and duodenum removed.
Dr Amri suggests that this procedure, which is only undertaken if the cancer is quickly spreading, might not have been necessary had the Apple CEO pursued conventional medicine sooner.
He wrote: 'The only reason he'd have a transplant would be that the tumour invaded all major parts of the liver, which takes a considerable amount of time.'
The book, which is being published by Simon & Schuster, was originally called iSteve and was scheduled to come out in March 2012. The release date was moved up to November, then, after Jobs' death, to this coming Monday.
THE ALTERNATIVE TREATMENTS
It is unclear what 'special diet' Steve Jobs may have adhered to after he was diagnosed with the tumour. He was known to be a pescetarian, so ate fish alongside a vegetarian diet.
He may have consulted a dietician after diagnosis because people with pancreatic disease often find it hard to digest fat. Enzymes are often prescribed to help break down food as the pancreas is not working as effectively.
Alternative treatments that may relieve symptoms of the disease - such as nausea and pain - include acupuncture, herbal supplements such as plant-derived enzymes and massage therapy.
However, there is no robust medical evidence any of these could actually fight the disease.
We know that Mr Jobs didn't follow the controversial 'Gonzalez protocol', which is supposed to treat pancreatic cancer using vegetable juices, 150 daily supplements and having coffee enemas.
This is because Dr Nicholas Gonzalez himself said the Apple-founder had not gone to him. He went on to say had Jobs done so he could have saved his life - although the early termination of a trial comparing chemotherapy to Gonzalez' protocol would suggest otherwise.
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