Jobs Health Concerns Related to Food Absorption, Not Cancer?

The New York Times reports that the health issues that have resulted in Steve Jobs taking a medical leave of absence from his role as Apple's CEO stem from a problem with food absorption and not from a recurrence of cancer.

Two people who are familiar with Mr. Jobs's current medical treatment said he was not suffering from a recurrence of cancer, but a condition that was preventing his body from absorbing food. Doctors have also advised him to cut down on stress, which may be making the problem worse, these people said.

Jobs underwent surgery for a rare form of pancreatic cancer in 2004, and he claimed as recently as July 2008 that he remained cancer-free. Concerns about Jobs' health were revived in mid-December when Apple announced that he would not present at Macworld Expo in San Francisco in early January, but he officially announced on the eve of Macworld that his health concerns were due to a "hormone imbalance".

After hours trading in Apple's stock was temporarily halted as the news was being released, and the share price temporarily dropped 10-12% upon resumption of trading before settling at an approximately 7% decline from the close of regular trading earlier in the day.