What Do You Do If You Have Cancer And No One Notices?
What happens if you discover that you have a malignant cancer, are an actor, get treatment, and no one ever notices? Well, if you are Eric Dane, you let a tabloid know about it. Look, we all know Eric Dane is a great guy. There was the kindness item, plus he is married to Rebecca Gayheart which cannot be easy. Yes, she is gorgeous, but to put up with her everyday is a kindness everyday of his life.
What I can't understand is why, without any prompting and definitely not done as a PSA, did Eric Dane decide to let us all know that he had suffered from skin cancer and received treatment? According to OK!, Eric Dane was diagnosed with skin cancer last month. Eric became concerned when he noticed an unusual patch of skin above his lips and immediately sought medical treatment.
"I went to my dermatologist. He said it was malignant tissue caused by sun damage." Doctors treated the growth by freezing it off with liquid nitrogen and Dane admits it was a traumatic procedure. He adds, "My skin is very sensitive and my lip was traumatized by the procedure I had to go through. I didn't eat very well for a couple of weeks and lost a bunch of weight."
Eric says he dropped about ten pounds during the ordeal, but is now fine and everything is normal. If Eric had found someone at the American Cancer Society and said, "hey, I had skin cancer and beat it, and want to do a PSA about early treatment or whatever," I would applaud him. The fact is though that the only people he told were a tabloid. That is fine I guess, BUT, then later he can't go around complaining that tabloids never leave him alone or they are too invasive. He has set the precedent that they should know intimately personal things about celebrities if he is the one going to them without any prompting. If they start asking questions to his wife about her life and medical conditions, he can't be pissed. He has said by going to them that they have the right to this information.
28 comments:
a vain young man in So Cal with skin cancer? that's not exactly news, sorry to report.
He needs to join the Orangutan family. Lindsay and Xtina will come and spray him orange in the future.
Maybe he has an expensive dermatologist and needed the money.
What's weird is that as often as we see pictures of him, we never saw him with a sore on his lip. (I'd certainly offer to kiss it and make it better. rowr!)
In theory it would be a great thing for him to let the people know (a) because of the risk of melanoma to everyone and (b) to head off any speculation by the tabs.
However....I agree it would have been smarter to do a PSA or work with the ACS so that the publicity would have the maximum positive result...like the As The World Turns actress who beat oral cancer and bravely did a story line on it on the show -- she's probably saved lives by doing that. She'd been silent on her illness before then.
I hope the fucker dies of his cancer.
My lip was traumatized once, but I got a good therapist for it and I think it's moved past the experience.
Everytime i see a pic of this guy i think its Leo D.
Phil - ME TOO!!! I had to look back when I didn't see Leo's name mentioned anywhere.
On another note, I don't think there's anything more fucked up than wishing death on another person.
Maybe he's just trying to raise awareness? He's fairly intriguing, doesn't seem to need the attention for this since he's easy enough on the eyes to get attention anyway. I'm trying to be less cynical than usual, so I'm going with his intent to educate the masses.
Heheh and here I thought I was the only one that initially mistook him for Leo.
Eric Dane's PR people SUCK. He could have set this up as a huge public service announcement for early detection and awareness, but instead just dragged it to same lame tabloid and looked money and attention hungry in the process.
I wish Eric Dane the best but I find it hard to believe that he got his malignant tissue frozen off like a wart and he was cancer free.
A family member of mine has skin cancer and has been getting chemo.
I wish people who have this type of PR exposure wouldn't make it seem like this form of cancer is not serious and it can simple been taken care of by a in and out procedure.
I hope he actually does something good with his second chance instead of complaining that no one noticed his 10 lbs weight loss or his swollen lips.
gossip monger, I know two people who have had malignant moles removed with no other treatment, and they're both fine. I knew another man who had a mole that changed shape and color and he wouldn't go to the doctor. A year later he was found to have stage 4 melanoma and after a five year battle, he passed away.
There are variables when it comes to cancer, so his story is believable.
Thanks TS- I just wish he would do something good with it- he is lucky he got a second chance and maybe he could save a life by highlighting this thing he has gone through via a better platform- like a PSA or something.
GM - I completely agree with you. He could have done some print or television spots to get the word out and it would have been a great thing. This just seems silly.
what makes me laugh is that by submitting his stories to a tabloid, skinny bitches are gonna be lying on the beach getting their own skin cancer and reading his skin cancer-sun damage story at the same time.. and they still will make no connection. lather on the baby oil, bitches. then you too can fulfill your very own dream of reporting your own skin cancer story to people. hooray!
I work at a Cancer Centre...here's the scoop on Eric's "cancer".
There are 3 (primary) types of skin cancers:
1. Malignant Melanoma
2. Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC)
3. Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC).
#1 is true and real cancer of the skin--can be cured, but must be caught early. Eric Dane did not have a melanoma as it's not caused by sun damage. Usually treated with systemic chemotherapy, sometimes radiation.
#2. SCC can be kind of nasty, all sorts of lesions and weeping sores and stuff, but also very curable. Not usually caused by sun damage. Treated with several different modalities (i.e. PDT--photodynamic therapy)
#3. BCC--caused by sun damage in 99% of cases. Also curable. Very curable. Like, scrape it off and put a bandaid over it.
What an ABSOLUTE PUSSY!!!!!!
What an absolute INSULT to anyone who's actually had to REALLY deal with cancer. The whole thing actually offends me.
Majik, I have to disagree with what you wrote about malignant melanoma. It IS CAUSED BY THE SUN - only it's not caused by exposure over a long period of time.
"Most skin diseases are caused by a history of sun exposure over time, but melanoma is different. Malignant melanoma is caused by intermittent, but intense sun exposures that usually include sunburns."
To say it's not caused by the sun is wrong.
Why do you think everyone is always screaming about sunscreen?
And I'll add another case of a friend dying of melanoma. This man used to take his kids to the beach and slather on the sunscreen, lie on his stomach and read while they played in the sand and water. His melanoma started on the bottom of his feet because WHO puts sunscreen THERE?
Twisted...you're partially correct, and I'm partially incorrect. Absolutely, there can be exacerbation of pre-existing melanin rich areas (i.e. moles) caused by sun exposure...I shouldn't say it isn't caused by it. My point is that, genetically speaking, those cells had to have been present to begin with. All the sunscreen in the world isn't going to protect you if you've got a nevis that's predestined to go bad. Sunscreen has been shown, however, to significantly reduce (if not completely eliminate) the risk of BCCs. Most people forget their lips, so it's very common (I work with a Radiation Oncologist who regularly makes trips to places like Yemen to treat cases of BCC/SCC...he says the bottom lip is the most common place, especially on farmers).
That's all I gotta say.
Majik, I think I get what you're saying, but isn't it still possible he had #1 or #3? I think it is, although I get your point and I remember when Sharon Stone had breast cancer (cough, cough).
Whoa whoa whoa....in no way am I saying that melanoma isn't deadly--it's very serious and can potentially go metastatic and spread to lung, liver, bone and brain. Melanoma on the bottom of the feet is actually quite common--the skin is different there.
What I'm saying is that Eric Dane has no right to be complaining about a scaly friggin' lip when people (like your friend) have serious cancer. Most people don't know there are different kinds of skin cancers, and almost everyone has heard of melanoma so they assume that's what he had. I'm just trying to point out that he had the mildest of mildest of cases and that he was in absolutely NO MORTAL PERIL whatsoever...he lost weight because he had a chancre, not the life-threatening condition the article is trying to get us to swallow.
Twisted...I guarantee you he had #3, Basal Cell Carcinoma--scaley lip, easily treated, caused 100% by sun damage.
If he had #1, Melanoma--no little cryogenic procedure is going to cure it. He'd be on chemo maybe, radiation treatment probably, but complete excision of the lip definitely. You don't f around with facial melanomas, you get them the f* outta you as fast as possible.
Hope that clears things up a little....I do tend to run on so...lol.
LOL - we're miscommunicating for some reason. Blame my Chicago snowstorm mentality today.
I don't think you're saying it's not deadly - sorry you got that impression. I'm saying I think it's still possible he could have had #1 or #3, the more serious of the three, and not just #2.
"Melanoma on the bottom of the feet is actually quite common--the skin is different there."
lol...I mean, respective to cases of melanoma not the general population. Don't want to scare anyone into hypochondria!!
Twisted...#1 Melanoma is the most serious and can be life threatening.
#2, SCC is more serious than #3 BCC, but neither are life threatening.
When the media talks about 'skin cancer', they usually mean BCC, but often dont' get the terminology right.
Okay, I guess my point is that I'm not willing to just pass this off as bull. That's all I'm saying.
Oh, I don't think it's bull...I just think he's a big pussy. He's trying to put himself in the same category as someone like Melissa Ethridge--successfully beaten, strong, moving on, etc. when in reality he had a little scab that needed to be frozen off and was never going to even threaten his health.
But he's still fun to look at.
Got it. Yeah, like having a mass of microcalcifications (precancerous cells) removed from your breast is hardly the same as going through surgery, chemo and/or radiation. I hear you on that.
And he IS fun to look at, that's true. Maybe he's a drama queen....lol.
Interesting - Dane's people have put out a statement saying OK made the story up/it isn't true/Eric never talked to them.
I wonder if its damage control because, like Enty said, not a very good move if you're only talking to the tabloids about it....or if OK really did just run with this story??
....hmmmm...
Post a Comment