At the age of 56, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has finally taken his final bow to pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic cancer is considered one of the fast and aggressive forms on cancers. Only around 4% of patients can survive five years within diagnosis. In the U.S. alone, about 44,000 new cases are diagnosed, and 37,000 people die of the disease, said a Time Healthland report.

Job's battle with the disease came to public attention in 2004, when he underwent surgery to remove the cancer from his pancreas. By 2009, his cancer has spread beyond the pancreas, and he took a leave of absence to have a liver transplant. He resigned from Apple in August 2011, admitting that he cannot anymore function as CEO for the company.

The pancreas contains two types of glands. The exocrine glands produce enzymes that break down fats and proteins, while the endocrine glands make hormones, such as insulin, that regulate blood sugar levels. According to the report, Jobs died of tumors in the endocrine glands. This is considered as a more rare form of pancreatic cancer. Jobs explained how rare the disease was during his Stanford commencement address in 2005, as published in the hufftingtonpost.com:

"I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now."

Experts state that Job's was a difficult medical battle. "He not only had cancer, he was battling the immune suppression after the liver transplant," Dr. Timothy Donahue of the UCLA Center for Pancreatic Disease in Los Angeles, told MSNBC.com. He observed that most patients who receive liver transplants live around two years after the surgery.

Treatment for Pancreatic Cancer

Surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, and the use of targeted anti-cancer drugs are the standard tumor-fighting therapies for pancreatic cancer. Erlotinib, a drug that targets growth factors found on cancer cells was approved in 2005 for the treatment of patients with advanced pancreatic cancer and undergoing chemotherapy. Trials combining chemotherapy and Erlotinib showed a slower tumor development, as well as a better patient survival rate of 23% after a year of treatment.

There are also alternative therapies, including the Gonzalez regimen, propagated by Dr. Nicholas Gonzalez of New Yrok. Its principle is to combat pancreatic tumors with pancreatic enzymes. It involves taking lots of nutritional supplements such as vitamins, minerals, and doing enema.

There has been no report of Jobs undergoing the Gonzalez regimen, but he was known to take alternative therapy, continues the Times Healthland report. According to a Fortune report in 2008, Jobs first tried to treat his cancer with diet, then with a radiation-based hormone treatment in Switzerland in 2009.

The effect of these treatments remain unclear, however, cancer experts expressed surprise over how long Jobs survived and fought the disease after its initial diagnosis. This can be considered extra-ordinary considering that the overall patients' median survival is generally only five months, continued the Time Healthland report.

In the end cancer won the battle. But not before Steve Jobs was able to leave a legacy of innovative technology that will continue to touch the lives of people around the world. This sentiment, was Apple's farewell to Steve Jobs:

"Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple."