Steve Jobs Succumbs to Alternative Medicine
First, Steve's family asked us to respect their privacy. They never made his fight with cancer a public matter and it's terribly rude to speculate like this. That aside, I did have some thoughts on the alternative treatments this article is talking about.<p>With close family members having fought cancer more times than I can count on one hand, my honest impression is that for several forms of cancer the <i>current</i> state of "orthodox" treatment (typically chemotherapy and radiation) is a joke worth skipping in exchange for what quality of life you have left.. which in one case has turned out to be 15 years and counting (following two surgeries.)<p>What makes a lot of alternative methods appealing to me is not their anecdotal evidence. It's that many of them (at least the ones I'm familiar with) don't have such torturous and long lasting side effects. For folks like my wife and I who have already come to the conclusion that we would not pursue chemotherapy and radiation treatments for many forms of cancer, we've got nothing to lose. We've already decided we'd rather die what we consider gracefully than suffer the side effects and slow, agonizing death of a long drawn out battle.<p>Not trying to convince anyone here, just trying to explain this from the other side.