Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who has been on medical leave from the company since mid-January, received a liver transplant roughly two months ago, according to the Wall Street Journal. Reporting without citing a source, which may have been due to an intentional but quiet Apple leak of the information, the Journal claims that Jobs had the surgery done in Tennessee, possibly to bypass longer transplant waiting lists in other states.
The report goes on to cite William Hawkins, a doctor specializing in pancreatic and gastrointestinal surgery at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., as saying that the type of pancreatic tumor Jobs had in 2004 will often metastasize in the patient’s liver later in their lifetime.
Hawkins also raised doubts as to the effectiveness of liver transplant surgery in such cases. Jobs is expected to return to work at Apple by the end of the month.
