If you are in the practice of listening to doctors who don’t have any experience treating Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs, you may believe he’s either considering a liver transplant, or that his cancer has spread or returned. But if you listen to Jobs himself, he has only one thing to say: “Why don’t you guys leave me alone—why is this important?” That was the response Jobs gave to Bloomberg, when they called to ask him whether he was considering a liver transplant. Separately, Reuters reported today that doctors believe either his cancer has returned or spread to other organs.

While speculation abounds as to what is wrong with Jobs, the other person increasingly in the spotlight is COO Tim Cook, who will be taking over for Jobs while he is on a five-month leave. In the last couple of days, several publications have written profiles on the man that all attempt to understand his management style and try to guess how he’ll run the company. From these articles, you can learn everything from his demeanor, described as “soft-spoken, calm, and less prone to raise his voice in tense situations,” to the fact that he likes to eat power bars. To be sure, we do know that Cook ran the company back in 2004 when Jobs was first diagnosed with cancer, and it seems to still be standing.

The big questions are what is considered material to the company’s health and what is personal? Bloomberg reported that while the SEC doesn’t require a company to disclose health information, companies have a requirement to clear up any misleading information on a CEO’s health, according to Stanley Sporkin, a former federal judge and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement director. One thing that is for sure, investors are spooked. On Tuesday, the day before Jobs’ said he was taking a leave of absence, the stock closed at $87.71 a share, and has since fallen 6.5 percent to $82.33.