Posted on 03/07/2006 10:12:12 PM PST by Extremely Extreme Extremist
Did years of singing in smoky nightclubs kill Dana Reeve, the widow of paralysed Superman actor Christopher Reeve?
She died yesterday of lung cancer even though she was not a smoker.
"Ten to 15 per cent of people who develop lung cancer are thought to be non-smokers. It was said that she had, in the course of being an entertainer, spent a lot of time in pubs, in nightclubs, in which there is a lot of cigarette smoke," said Dr James Mulshine from Rush University Medical Centre in Chicago.
Reeve, 44, won worldwide admiration for her devotion to her husband through his decade of near total paralysis.
He died 15 months ago and late last year she appeared at a gala for the Christopher Reeve Foundation and appeared to be responding well to treatment.
In the US more women die of lung cancer than breast cancer, and one in five American women diagnosed with the disease have never lit a cigarette.
"We know that 90 per cent of lung cancer is linked to direct smoking, the other 10 per cent is tied to occupational exposures, radon and secondhand smoke," said Pat McKone, a senior director of tobacco control with the American Lung Association.
"Dana Reeve was not a smoker, but she did spend many years of her singing career in smoke filled nightclubs."
Her death comes amid a worldwide debate on the danger of passive smoking and attempts to ban smoking from bars, clubs and eateries.
For instance today in New Jersey a coalition of bars, restaurants and bowling alley operators sued the state claiming its ban on smoking law is unconstitutional.
Meanwhile tributes have poured in for Reeve who was best known for standing by her husband through his courageous decade-long battle with paralysis caused by a fall from a horse.
"The brightest light has gone out," said comedian Robin Williams, one of the couple's closest friends. "We will forever celebrate her loving spirit."
Reeve's death came as a shock because she seemed to have the upper hand on the deadly disease since telling the world about her diagnosis last year, only two days after the death of American ABC TV newsman Peter Jennings.
"I'm beating the odds and defying every statistic the doctors can throw at me," Reeve said just a few months ago.
Reeve said she had learned from her late husband's struggle.
"I was married to a man who never gave up," she said.
Her death sparked an outpouring from the Reeves' many friends and admirers in Hollywood and Washington, where she was a vocal backer of stem cell research.
Former president Bill Clinton and Senator Hillary Clinton described Reeve as "a model of tenacity and grace".
"Chris was America's superhero, and Dana became our hero, too," added former presidential candidate Senator John Kerry, a close family friend.
Dana Reeve is survived by her 13-year-old son Will and two adult stepchildren, Matthew and Alexandra.
Dana Reeve, who lived in Pound Ridge, New York, had appeared in Broadway and Off-Broadway productions and on the TV shows Law & Order, Oz and All My Children.
She married Reeve in 1992 and abandoned her acting career to care for him after he was paralysed when he fell from a horse in 1995.
Christopher Reeve died on October 10, 2004.
In his autobiography, Still Me, Reeve wrote that he suggested early on to his wife, "Maybe we should let me go."
She responded, "I'll be with you for the long haul, no matter what. You're still you and I love you."
Those were "the words that saved my life", he wrote.
"Is it me, or is this a poorly written sentence?"
It is certainly a baddly punctuated one.
Thank you for the information. It is very interesting.
I am sorry to hear about your loss.
That wasn't my intended inference. My inference was that no one should be making any profit on these ineffective treatments; they simply shouldn't be allowed. I usually agree with you, but we will simply have to disagree on this subject.
Chemo, without surgery, doesn't work on the cancers that I listed. I've spent hundreds of hours reading studies on both existing chemo options and clinical trials over the last year; particularly those focusing on cholangiocarcinoma, and pancreatic and liver adenocarcinomas. I know exactly what they say, and I stand by my statements.
If any other "business" had a 1% success rate (and a higher rate of actually hastening death), they would be shut down. Even if it's your stated 15% (that seems to be the standard spin fed to patients by oncologists...heard it more than once), what does that mean? If you look at the studies, it means that 15% might live an extra six months...whoopee...we should be proud of ourselves after several decades and billions of dollars wasted.
The sooner we cut off futile treatment the faster we as a society will demand an effective treatment. It's time to stop throwing good money after bad on a failed approach. I supposed I shouldn't blame oncologists; the FDA should simply cut them off at the knees by refusing to approve these drugs. Most people don't give this a thought until they are faced with the situation. I did; my Uncle died in his forties of cholangiocarcinoma in the early 80's. But even I wasn't prepared for the complete and total lack of advancement made in the last thirty years when my Dad was diagnosed last March (he died in July at 62). Most people also don't ever to bother to really "look" at the statistics. They think that their family member was one of the unlucky ones for whom chemo didn't work; they have no idea that it didn't work for anyone else, either.
We need to quit wasting money, and spend it instead on body scans for early detection when cancer can actually be treated; or (what a thought!) finding the actual cause and a decent treatment for cancer.
Agree. . .stress may have weakened her immune system. . .do not buy the 'second-hand smoke'. . .The world would be more than half it's population size; were this the case. . .
Well, was doing some searching and did not close window. . .so in backtracking. . .thought this a more 'recent' addition. . .nothing like 'old news'. . .right? ;^#
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