Steve Jobs (1955-2011) - How Cancer Slowly Killed the Tech Genius Over the Years (PHOTOS)

After fighting a long eight-year battle with a rare form of pancreatic cancer, the tech genius Steve Jobs ultimately passed away on Oct. 5, Wednesday.

Apple Inc. on Wednesday announced that its co-founder and former CEO Jobs died at the age of 56. Apple said the company lost a visionary and creative genius, the world lost an amazing human being and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.

Jobs, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003. Then he started the long term battle with the pancreatic tumor.

In August 2004, Jobs said for the first time that he had undergone an operation to remove the cancer. However, it was not until the early part of 2009 that he acknowledged that his health issues were more complex than what he initially thought.

During a commencement speech at Stanford University on June 12, 2005, he still said he was fine now. However, when Jobs introduced the iPhone 3G at Apple's developers' conference in the middle of 2008, he seemed thinner and more frail. Then, The New York Times reported Jobs was cancer-free, citing unnamed people close to Jobs.

In September 2008, Jobs still looked thin, when he introduced the new iPod media players. At the end of 2008, Apple said Jobs would not give his usual speech at the Macworld conference, where he had introduced new products for 11 straight years.

In January 2009, Jobs said he had a hormone imbalance that resulted in his weight loss. Just few days later, he gave up day-to-day operations to Cook.

On Sept. 9, 2009, Jobs said he was the recipient of a liver that was transplanted from a young adult, who was killed in a car crash.

Jobs took another medical leave on Jan. 17, 2011. But he attended the WWDC in June where the OS X Lion, iOS 5 and iCloud were unveiled.

On Oct. 5, a day after Apple unveiled iPhone 4S, the company announced the death of its former CEO and founder.

Start the slideshow to see for yourself how Jobs battled against cancer over the years and how the dreaded disease took a toll on his health.