Val Kilmer's 2020
- Actor Val Kilmer, 60, had throat surgery within the past few years but this year has a flurry of new films coming out.
- Throat cancer is typically caused by smoking or excessive drinking, or from the human papillomavirus (HPV).
- Staying busy and keeping a positive attitude can help make the cancer journey easier.
Kilmer’s Throat Cancer Journey
Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 and went public with his illness in 2017. It’s possible that Kilmer took a break from acting due to his tracheotomy a surgical procedure that consists of an incision in the neck and the trachea which impacts the voice. Kilmer also underwent chemotherapy to treat his disease. Related: Throat Cancer Survivor, Val Kilmer, Chose His Family Over Religion By Going Through Chemo Treatment "I Just Didn't Want To Experience Their Fear"Two main causes of throat cancer are smoking and excessive drinking, but throat cancer can also be caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV). Dr. Ted Teknos said in a previous interview, “When I first started training and practicing head and next surgery, we saw this group of patients that were becoming increasingly more frequent, who were those patients who never smoked, were not drinkers, and were developing head and neck cancer. And in the beginning part of my career in the early 90s and mid-90s, those were rare patients, but then, year by year, those numbers increased dramatically.”
“What we know now, through science, is going back and looking, decade by decade, the rates of HPV-related head and neck cancer have increased exponentially,” said Tr. Teknos. “If you look at the percentage of patients who developed throat cancer, really, cancer of the tonsils and the base of the tongue, in the 80s compared to the 2010s, if you will, the rate of HPV-related head and neck cancers has gone up by 300%. So there is no myth. HPV causes throat cancer, and it’s a sexually transmitted disease. And it’s something that is an epidemic in the United States.”
Majority of Throat Cancer Diagnoses Are Caused by HPV Here's What You Need to Know
Keeping a Positive Attitude Through Cancer
Kilmer has managed to stay productive throughout his cancer battle, and quite honestly, it’s inspiring. Staying busy may help keep your mind off the diagnosis and onto other things. Having a positive attitude through cancer has been shown to help, too.
Related: A Major Step in the Cancer Journey: Learning to Deal With Vulnerability
Dr. Zuri Murrell, a Colorectal Surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said in an earlier interview, “My patients who thrive, even with stage 4 cancer, from the time that they, about a month after they’re diagnosed, I kind of am pretty good at seeing who is going to be OK. Now doesn’t that mean I’m good at saying that the cancer won’t grow.”
“But I’m pretty good at telling what kind of patient are going to still have this attitude and probably going to live the longest, even with bad, bad disease. And those are patients who, they have gratitude in life. My mother, who passed away about a month before I graduated med school, from breast cancer, she lived 10 years, at a time when people weren’t, with mets to her bones and her brain. One of her most amazing characteristics was her attitude.”
Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.