Tributes lie on the pavement outside Steve Jobs home in Palo Alto, California

According to the Santa Clara County Public Health Department in San Jose, California which issued the death certificate, the immediate cause of death of the Apple CEO was listed as respiratory arrest with the underlying cause “metastatic pancreas neuroendocrine tumor”.

This puts to rest the speculations that arose when Apple Inc announced his demise without specifying any details. Other facts which emerged, according to Bloomberg:

-he passed away at home, 3pm on October 5.

-no autopsy was performed.

- he was buried at a non-denominational cemetery in Santa Clara County on Oct. 7.

The conclusions that can be drawn from the death certificate implies that the neuroendocrine cancer of the pancreas (the rarer form of cancer of the pancreas) presumably spread to the rest of the body (stage 4) despite the liver transplant in 2009 to remove cancer cells in the liver. This is much in keeping with the seriousness and malignant nature of this type of cancer, where the survival rates are less than 4% after 5 years (less than 4% of sufferers live beyond 5 years).