Steve Jobs Health Watch: No Facts? No Problem!

Apple guru Steve Jobs finally went public about his heath yesterday, albeit with a characteristically gnomic disclosure that shed alarmingly little light on the subject. How to parse it? If you're a newspaper, of course, the answer is to find a single expert willing to speculate wildly.

The Wall Street Journal found someone willing to consider the worst case scenario:

Michael D. Jensen, an endocrinologist at the Mayo Clinic, said it is possible Mr. Jobs's cancer has returned and is the cause of the imbalance that led to the weight loss. Treatment could include another surgery to remove the tumor, or drugs to restore a healthy hormonal balance. Doctors said the outlook for patients with a recurrence varies widely.

A side effect from that procedure may have contributed to the current problem, said Dr. Richard M. Goldberg, a specialist in pancreatic cancer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who has no personal knowledge of Mr. Jobs's medical history.

The reduction in size of the pancreas can prevent it from making enough fat-digesting enzymes and make it more difficult for patients to absorb foods that contain fat, Dr. Goldberg said. Patients can avoid this by taking enzymes for the rest of their lives, but the dose has to be carefully adjusted at every meal depending on the fat content of the food, he said.