Steve Jobs Out on Medical Leave Through 6/09

There has been much speculation over the health of Steve Jobs since last year, when he appeared gaunt and somewhat ill at WWDC last year. Since then, he admitted to skipping Macworld this year for health reasons, though he said it was a "hormone imbalance that has been 'robbing' me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy."

An MSNBC story posted soon after Steve Jobs admitted his health issues had some alarming theories, including, despite the relative innocuous nature of a hormone imbalance, that it could be a recurrence of his islet cell neuroendocrine tumor from 2004.

An islet cell tumor is caused by abnormal cells that form in the hormone-producing endocrine tissues of the pancreas. Islet cell tumors may be benign or cancerous.

A return or spread of the previous tumor, or development of a new tumor, could cause a hormone imbalance that could lead to “wasting,” including a depletion of protein and other nutrients, Mechanick said. That would lead to metabolic problems that could cause dramatic weight loss, he added.

Meanwhile, Computerworld speculated that Jobs might have something akin to Type-1 diabetes:

"A lot of this is speculative," Yu said to preface his reasoning, "since I don't know Mr. Jobs' condition specifically. But in terms of weight loss, and if the tumor was completely removed, it would be likely that he would have secondary Type 1-like diabetes. That's very common with patients who have had a large chunk of their pancreas removed. I see that very commonly."

Here's the text of the letter Steve Jobs sent to employees:

Team,

I am sure all of you saw my letter last week sharing something very personal with the Apple community. Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well. In addition, during the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought.

In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June.

I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for Apple's day to day operations, and I know he and the rest of the executive management team will do a great job. As CEO, I plan to remain involved in major strategic decisions while I am out. Our board of directors fully supports this plan.

I look forward to seeing all of you this summer.

Steve

Tim Cook will be fine, as he led Apple when Jobs left during his bout with pancreatic cancer. However, Apple stock may not be fine: at the time of this writing, Apple stock is down over 8.5%, to $77.92.

Obviously, more to come.