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In reply to the discussion: Sarah Hershberger comes home to die [View all]pnwmom
(108,925 posts)Doctors disagree with you on that.
I certainly hope the situation is different with your partner, though.
Dr. Dean Cornish, a friend of Jobs who recommended he have surgery, said Jobs made a well-reasoned decision. Other experts commented that his tumor had probably already spread which means, it was likely incurable by the time it was first discovered.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/01/health/hindsight-is-kind-to-steve-jobss-decision-to-delay-surgery.html
A Tumor Is No Clearer in Hindsight
Steve was a very thoughtful person. In deciding whether or not to have major surgery, and when, he spent a few months consulting with a number of physicians and scientists worldwide as well as his team of superb physicians. It was his decision to do this.
SNIP
No one can say whether or not having surgery earlier would have made any difference because of the possibility of micrometastases.
Dr. Edward M. Wolin, co-director of the carcinoid and neuroendocrine tumor program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said that among patients with the kind of cancer Mr. Jobs had, when they are first found on a scan, about 60 percent of the time its already metastasized to the liver.
Another expert, Dr. Steven K. Libutti, said that based on his reading of the new biography, it seemed likely that Mr. Jobss tumor had spread by the time it was found, and the delay in surgery probably did no harm. Dr. Libutti is director of the Montefiore Einstein Center for Cancer Care in New York and of its neuroendocrine tumor program.