Steve Jobs would have survived if he had chosen a classical medical approach to battle the pancreatic cancer he was suffering from.
He was hit by a rare case of perfectly fightable pancreas cancer called Islet cell tumor — and I repeat: perfectly fightable pancreas cancer !! — and still, the incredibly rich and incredibly powerful visionary proved to lack the vision to be cured.
He chose the alternative mode, and gave the cancer enough elbow room to spread.
Pancreatic cancer is a hard nut to crack, but surviving it — in the sense of being in remission — does happen on occasion. One has to approach it scientifically though — no fruit-only diet nor any other alternative therapy will save you.
A very good friend of my parents was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer about ten years ago. He had to undergo a Whipple procedure — which involves removing the head of the pancreas, the first part of the small intestine, the gallbladder and the bile duct — and then had intensive chemotherapy to kill the remaining cancerous cell.
Five years later, he was officially declared to be in remission, so in the above sense he had survived.
But four and a half years later — almost exactly six months ago — he started losing weight without an obvious reason. The diagnosis was bleak: pancreatic cancer. Apparently some cancerous cells had escaped the chemo, and started multiplying under the radar.
Only this time it has spread.
The ugly truth about cancer is that “in remission” does not mean that all cancer is gone — it only means that no cancer can be detected for the time being. In the meanwhile it could be spreading just the same.
You might not know it yet —
But you will.