Beloved TV star Michael Landon died of pancreatic cancer when he was just 54 years old in July 1991. Now, almost 30 years later, details surrounding the late actor’s death are being investigated.
The Investigation Around Michael Landon’s Cancer and Death
At the center of the investigation — did the filming location of Landon’s hit show Little House on the Prairie contribute to his cancer diagnosis? In a new episode of the Reelz Channel’s Autopsy: The Last Hours of …, a documentary-style TV show that looks at the deaths of various celebrities, the Little House on the Prairie location is being looked at as a possible cause of Landon’s cancer. The popular show, which ran from 1974 to 1983 and was based on the classic books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, was filmed near the Santa Susana Field Laboratory — where a “partial meltdown of a nuclear reactor” took place in 1959, according to California Department of Toxic Substances Control.
Read MoreInvestigating the Likelihood of Michael Landon’s Cancer Being Caused by a Nuclear Reactor
This “cancer epidemic” has prompted a number of studies on the area. PEOPLE spoke to a forensic pathologist named Dr. Michael Hunter who claimed that studies show “[the disaster] was responsible for up to 2,000 cancer-related deaths and lead to a 60% increase in cancers such as lung, bladder, kidney, liver, blood, lymph node, upper digestive track and thyroid.” However, Dr. Hunter also told PEOPLE that despite Little House‘s proximity to the site, he doesn’t believe that is what caused Landon’s cancer — there’s simply not enough science behind the claim. When Landon’s cancer was discovered in 1991, it had already traveled to his liver. The actor was treated with chemotherapy, but the treatments had a very slim chance of working. Even today, the 5-year survival rate for people with pancreatic cancer that has spread to distant areas of the body is around 3%, according to the American Cancer Society.“It is the solid tumor cancer that has the worst prognosis,” Dr. Allyson Ocean, a Medical Oncologist at Weill Cornell Medical Center, told SurvivorNet about pancreatic cancer today. “It is right now the third leading cause of cancer death, soon to be the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States. Mortality is rising because it is caught so late and we don't have enough effective medications against the cancer."
The episode of Autopsy: The Last Hours of … that investigates Landon’s death will air Sunday at 8 p.m. on Reelz.
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