Apple CEO Steve Jobs' health prospects seem good, experts say

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Apple CEO Steve Jobs' prospects are good due to a transplant two months ago, medical experts said, calling the procedure an effective strategy to contain a cancer that likely has spread.

"These tumors can be treated quite well with liver transplants and are able to be managed and have a good outcome," said Stanford University transplant expert Dr. Waldo Concepcion, who did not treat Jobs.

Five years ago, Jobs, 54, disclosed he had been diagnosed with, and cured of, a rare form of pancreatic tumor. Then in January he was treated for weight loss and went on a medical leave from Apple.

The Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend that he received a liver transplant two months ago at an unidentified transplant center in Tennessee.

The fact that Jobs was eligible for a transplant underscores that his type of disease is less aggressive than the far more common and deadly form of pancreatic cancer, Concepcion said. Patients with metastatic cancer are typically not eligible for transplants.

The liver is the most common place for pancreatic cancer to spread, because blood flows from one organ to the other.

Liver transplants are rejected less vigorously than transplants of other organs, said Dr. Oscar Salvatierra of Stanford's School of Medicine.

The five-year survival rate for liver-transplant recipients is 75 percent, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.