Although there has yet to be an official announcement as to the cause of his death, it is public knowledge that Apple founder Steve Jobs had been battling pancreatic cancer since 2004, reports Time.
While new advancements are being made in treatments every day, currently patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer do not have a very good prognosis. Because it is one of the fastest-spreading forms of cancer, only about four percent of patients are expected to survive beyond five years; Jobs survived much longer than many cancer experts would have expected him to.
In 2004, he had surgery to remove the tumor from his pancreas, but the cancer spread. In 2009, he underwent a liver transplant in an effort to maintain as much organ function as possible.
Surgery is a standard treatment for the form of cancer, as is chemotherapy, radiation and now even new targeted anticancer drugs, such an erlotinib, which targets the growth factor of cancer cells. Jobs is known to have also undergone some alternative treatments, including a special diet and a hormone treatment that was only available in Switzerland.
"Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being," Jobs’ successor Tim Cook wrote in an employee-wide email.
"No words can adequately express our sadness at Steve’s death or our gratitude for the opportunity to work with him. We will honor his memory by dedicating ourselves to continuing the work he loved so much."