Apple chief Jobs ‘back at work’

Analysts say Mr Jobs will likely start back at work on a part-time basis

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs has reportedly returned to work following six months of medical leave.

Mr Jobs, 54, who is reported to have had a liver transplant, was expected back at his desk at the end of June.

Apple has refused to comment on the matter but did quote Mr Jobs in a press release on first weekend sales figures for the next generation of iPhones.

The blogosphere has noted several sightings of Apple’s co-founder around its campus in Silicon Valley.

“Jobs is in the house!” declared CNBC’s Jim Goldman, who is regarded as having close ties to Apple.

“Confirmed! Steve Jobs did report for work today, according to employees who have seen him on campus,” wrote Mr Goldman in his TechCheck column.

Reuters news agency quoted sources saying Mr Jobs “was seen leaving the main Apple building in Cupertino and getting into a black car alone that was driven off by men in black suits with ear-pieces.”

Revelations

In 2004, Mr Jobs was treated for pancreatic cancer.

Last year there were fears that the cancer had returned when he appeared at a major Apple event looking thin and gaunt.

Months of rumour ensued and the company’s share price rose and fell as a result.

In January, Mr Jobs revealed that he was being treated for a “hormone imbalance”.

Over a week later he sent an e-mail to employees and told them that his medical problems were more complex than first thought and he would take six months off work to concentrate on his health.

The Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend that Mr Jobs underwent a liver transplant over two months ago, but Apple remained tight-lipped on the subject.

Analysts have predicted that Mr Jobs will stay on as chief executive officer on a part-time basis with a view to moving on to become chairman of the company.

Floyd founder Wright dies at 65

Wright (right) wrote songs on albums including Dark Side Of The Moon

Pink Floyd keyboard player and founder member Richard Wright has died, aged 65, from cancer.

Wright appeared on the group’s first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, in 1967 alongside lead guitarist Syd Barrett, Roger Waters and Nick Mason.

Dave Gilmour joined the band at the start of 1968 while Barrett left the group shortly afterwards.

Gilmour said: “He was such a lovely, gentle, genuine man and will be missed terribly by so many who loved him.”

Writing on his website, he added: “And that’s a lot of people. Did he not get the loudest, longest round of applause at the end of every show in 2006?”

Wright’s spokesman said in a statement: “The family of Richard Wright, founder member of Pink Floyd, announce with great sadness that Richard died today after a short struggle with cancer.

“The family have asked that their privacy is respected at this difficult time.”

He did not say what form of cancer the self-taught keyboard player and pianist had.

Live 8

Wright, a founder member of The Pink Floyd Sound – and other previous incarnations including Sigma 6 – met Waters and Mason at architecture school.

Wright rejoined Pink Floyd for the London Live 8 concert in 2005

Pink Floyd achieved legendary status with albums including 1973’s The Dark Side Of The Moon, which stayed in the US album chart for more than a decade.

Wright, known as Rick earlier in his career, wrote The Great Gig In The Sky and Us And Them from the album.

Waters left the band in 1981, performing his last concert at London’s Earls Court.

Wright, together with Gilmour and Mason, continued to record and tour as Pink Floyd during the remainder of the 1980s and into the 1990s, releasing their last studio album – The Division Bell – in 1994.

In 2005, the full band reunited – for the first time in 24 years – for the Live 8 concert in London’s Hyde Park.

Wright also contributed vocals and keyboards to Gilmour’s 2006 solo album On An Island, while performing with his touring band in shows in Europe and the US.

Send in your memories of Richard Wright

Cheap drug hope for breast cancer

In the UK, almost 46,000 new cases of breast cancer are diagnosed each year

A combination of two inexpensive existing drugs may offer a new way to treat breast cancer, according to UK and Finnish researchers.

The common chemotherapy drug and a brittle bone medicine almost completely stopped the growth of tumours in mice.

The Journal of the National Cancer Institute said the combination cost a twentieth of Herceptin, given to breast cancer patients by the NHS.

Specialists said the results of human trials now under way would be crucial.

The results of this study could change the way breast cancer patients are treated Pamela Goldberg Breast Cancer Campaign

In the UK, almost 46,000 new cases of breast cancer are diagnosed each year.

Although modern treatments mean that cases caught sufficiently early, some via breast screening programmes, have an excellent chance of being successfully treated.

The study was a joint project between researchers at the University of Sheffield and the Kuopio University in Finland.

Its findings could offer an even more effective way to help some patients.

It used a dose of the drug doxorubicin, a common component of chemotherapy regimes, followed 24 hours later by zoledronic acid, currently given to osteoporosis patients.

In the mice, this stopped 99.99% of new cancer cell growth in tumours.

It is thought the first drug could be “priming” the tumour to be more sensitive to the cancer-cell killing qualities of the second drug.

Dr Ingunn Holen, who led the study, said that the study showed that the drug cocktail could “kill breast tumours”.

“These results show that a patient may benefit the most if these two drugs are given in this particular order.”

She said that the results of a human trial were expected later this year.

Speed advantage

If that proves successful, the drugs would not have to undergo a lengthy licensing process, simply have the change of use included in their current licence.

Breast Cancer Campaign, the charity which funded the study, said it was encouraged by the potential for the drug to be made swiftly available to women.

Its chief executive, Pamela Goldberg, said: “The results of this study could change the way breast cancer patients are treated.

“The good news is the that the two treatments are relatively inexpensive and already used in the clinic.”

A spokesman for Cancer Research UK said that a study in humans would be important.

“Establishing the most effective combinations of drug treatments and the timings in which they are given is an important area of clinical research.

“But the benefits of giving zoledronic acid after doxorubicin have only been shown here in mice and now need to be evaluated more fully in people with breast cancer.”