Steve Jobs resisted his doctors' recommendations for medical intervention for nine months,
[161] in favour of
alternative medicine. Other doctors agree that Jobs's diet was insufficient to address his disease. However, cancer researcher and alternative medicine critic
David Gorski wrote that "it's impossible to know whether and by how much he might have decreased his chances of surviving his cancer through his flirtation with woo. My best guess was that Jobs probably only modestly decreased his chances of survival if that."
[162][163] Barrie R. Cassileth, the chief of
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center's
integrative medicine department,
[164] on the other hand, said, "Jobs's faith in alternative medicine likely cost him his life ... He had the only kind of pancreatic cancer that is treatable and curable ... He essentially committed suicide."
[165] According to biographer Walter Isaacson, "for nine months he refused to undergo surgery for his pancreatic cancer – a decision he later regretted as his health declined".
[166] "Instead, he tried a vegan diet, acupuncture, herbal remedies, and other treatments he found online, and even consulted a psychic. He was also influenced by a doctor who ran a clinic that advised juice fasts, bowel cleansings and other unproven approaches, before finally having surgery in July 2004."
[167][168] He underwent a
pancreaticoduodenectomy (or "Whipple procedure") that appeared to remove the tumour successfully.
[169][170] Jobs did not receive
chemotherapy or
radiation therapy.
[159][171] During Jobs's absence,
Tim Cook, head of worldwide sales and operations at Apple, ran the company.
[159]