Michael Douglas has throat cancer?
This afternoon I was chatting with a Pharma friend via IM when she sent me a surprise link:
Michael Douglas to Undergo Chemo for Tumor in Throat Cancer
Oof, he was one of my favourite actors growing up as a child – I just loved the Streets of San Francisco! He also made Gordon Gekko famous in Wall Street.
There's a lot of throat cancer in the news lately. The most recent was Alex Higgins, the incredible Irish snooker player who was a truly sensational player from my childhood.
I wrote about him recently here. Be warned – the before and after pictures are a little shocking.
A recent photo of Michael Douglas on ABC News was also a shock, as he looks much more haggard than I remember 🙁
Lately, I've been watching re-runs in the evenings of the classic gritty but violent English detective drama from the 1970's, The Sweeney, starring John Thaw and Dennis Waterman. Idly clicking through to IMDB, I wondered what had become of Thaw, who also starred in Inspector Morse, only to discover that he, too, had passed away in 2002 – from throat cancer.
What is common with these three men? Well, alcohol and cigarette smoking contributed no doubt, as the American Cancer Society lists both of these as two of the potential risk factors for laryngeal and hypopharyngeal cancer, the medical term for throat cancer, which is often referred to as oesophageal cancer in the UK. The median age of diagnosis is round 65, so Douglas, Thaw and Higgins were all around the peak of the age range bell curve (60-65).
Hopefully, Michael Douglas's cancer has been picked up early and he will make a full recovery from chemotherapy. I really hope so, it's very sad to see one's favourite childhood heroes dropping 🙁
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