Feb. 17 2011 - 2:55 pm By MATTHEW HERPER for Forbes.com
The National Enquirer has reported that Steve Jobs has only six weeks to live based the paper’s analysis of photographs that purportedly show the Apple founder. Hogwash.
Even if the photographs are real, the estimate of how much time Jobs has left, or any speculation about his condition, is baseless. You don’t have to take my word on that – you can listen to Otis Brawley, Chief Medical Officer of the American Cancer Society and a noted oncologist.
“Based on a photograph or even based of a videotape of someone giving a presentation on stage, it is impossible to make an estimation of someone’s life expectancy,” says Brawley. What’s more, he says, it’s not even really possible to make those kinds of estimates after a real exam. “I can’t look at someone’s picture and immediately say they’re sick,” says Brawley.
Nor would extreme weight loss necessarily mean a bad prognosis if Jobs is being treated, Brawley says. Wasting occurs among people who are undergoing chemotherapy – even if the patient is going to get better. And it’s also not always possible to tell wasting from weight loss due to dieting or exercise, either.
Brawley says he has some experience with supermarket tabloids. He was once quoted in one making a prognosis about Dirty Dancing star Patrick Swayze’s cancer. Later on, he says, another ACS official was quoted by the tab saying exactly the same thing about Senator Edward Kennedy.
As I’ve written before, because we all know that Jobs is sick, new information doesn’t tell us much about whether he will get well. There’s no excuse that hanging on every bit of Jobs news is material to Apple. It’s just evidence of our fascination with celebrity.
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