Steve Jobs' Future: Tumor Complications Not Uncommon

(CBS/AP) Steve Jobs is taking his second medical leave in two years - but why? The 55-year-old Apple CEO is vague on the details. But experts say it's not unusual for people with the rare pancreatic tumor for which Jobs has been treated to experience additional health problems.

Dr. Michael Poryako, medical director of liver transplantation at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, listed a slew of conditions that might be affecting the computer pioneer, who in 2009 had a liver transplant after being diagnosed with a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor.

Jaundice and kidney and vascular problems are two possibilities, he said, as well as side effects from the immunosuppressant drugs patients take following an organ transplant.

Dr. Roderich Schwarz, director of surgical oncology at the University of Texas Southwest Medical Center, said it was possible cancer has invaded Jobs' new liver.

Whatever his present condition, Jobs is lucky in that pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors are often slow-growing, and thus more treatable than pancreatic adenocarcinoma, the most common form of pancreatic cancer.

"It has a tendency to be more indolent, and that allows us to intervene," Dr. Charles S. Fuchs, professor of medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and an expert on pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors, told CBS News. "I think it is a disease that has a reasonable success rate with both surgery and chemotherapy. We are in an era now where we are seeing the emergence of a number of drugs for the disease."

Can people ever be cured of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors? Absolutely, said Dr. Fuchs. And, he said, tumors that can't be cured often can be successfully managed for many years.

As for Jobs, whose gaunt appearance has alarmed some, little is known about his current condition. Apple did not provide any information beyond a six-sentence note from Jobs to employees announcing his absence, which left unanswered questions about whether the CEO is acutely ill, whether the leave is related to his liver transplant or whether he is at home or in a hospital.

"I love Apple so much and hope to be back as soon as I can," Jobs wrote. "In the meantime, my family and I would deeply appreciate respect for our privacy."