Apple Computers boss has cancer surgery

Steve Jobs, the charismatic chief executive of Apple Computers, has had surgery to remove a cancerous tumour from his pancreas but says he expects a full recovery.

In an e-mail message to employees released by Apple in San Jose, California, he said he will be off to recuperate during August and expects to return to work in September.

He identified his cancer as an islet cell neuroendocrine tumour, which he described as rare and said could be cured by surgical removal if diagnosed early. He said his was caught early and would require no chemotherapy or radiation treatment.

A far more deadly – and common form – of pancreatic cancer is adenocarcinoma, he said.

“I mention this because when one hears ‘pancreatic cancer’ (or Googles it), one immediately encounters this far more common and deadly form, which, thank God, is not what I had,” he said in the message.

During Jobs’ absence, Apple will be run by Timothy Cook, the company’s executive vice president of worldwide sales and operations. Cook said the current management team had worked with Jobs for many years, and that experience would guide them through the next month.

“Steve is an extremely hands-on CEO,” said Cook. “We have some very clear priorities for the company for the months to come.”

Bill Campbell, an Apple director, said the board was confident Cook could manage the company in Jobs’ absence. He also expressed relief that Jobs’ surgery went well.

“The surgery was hugely successful, and the prognosis is excellent,” Campbell said. “We feel very relieved and optimistic about the future.”

Jobs, 49, and friend Steve Wozniak founded Apple in 1976, five years before IBM jumped into the personal computer market.

In 1984, the company released the Macintosh, which was the first commercially-successful computer to have a graphical user interface that mimicked a physical desktop. It was eventually copied by makers of IBM-clone computers, which became far more dominant.