A Beloved TV Star
- The late Charlotte Rae, affectionately known as ‘Mrs. Garrett’ on TV, lived until she was 92 years old after enduring various health problems, which included battling pancreatic cancer and bone cancer.
- Rae had revealed in a 2017 interview that her mother, sister, and uncle died from pancreatic cancer, and it was a “miracle” they had found hers early enough for her to beat.
- A leading expert explains the challenges of screening early for pancreatic cancer; by the time a patient comes in with symptoms, the disease is many times too advanced to treat.
Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the Diff’rent Strokes star, who played the same character on the spin-off Facts of Life in the ’80s sitcoms, grew up doing theatre on Broadway. Like many aspiring actresses, she headed east to start an entertainment career in the Big Apple after a quick stint at Northwestern University in Chicago in 1948. Eventually, she headed west in 1974 to work, adding more credits to a long career spanning 60 years. But she will always be eternally known as the mother figure ‘Mrs. Garrett.’
Read MoreView this post on InstagramRae mused in a 2017 interview why her most beloved character resonated so well with viewers. She had a book signing, and many grown-ups approached her saying that they had been “latchkey” kids, who were kids who had returned from school to an empty home and often left unsupervised.
“She was who they really hung on to and clung to … and loved,” Rae explained to the Television Academy. “[She] was the mother they wished they had had around … so that makes me happy. I served some service.” Rae had also explained that producers made it a point to never have her raise her voice at the children on Diff’rent Strokes. She was always there for them, and spoke in a calm and rational manner to help them through their problems.
Rae was also known for her fine character and nurturing energy off-screen as well, and celebrated life well into her old age.
"At 91, every day is a birthday," Rae told PEOPLE in a 2017. "[In my book] I want to tell everybody to celebrate every day, to savor the day and be good to yourself, love yourself, and then you can be good to others and be of service to others."
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She had announced to the magazine that she had just been diagnosed with bone cancer after beating pancreatic cancer.
"About seven years ago, I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer which is a miracle that they found it because usually it's too late,” she said. “My mother, sister and my uncle died of pancreatic cancer. After six months of chemotherapy, I was cancer-free. I lost my hair, but I had beautiful wigs. Nobody even knew."
She had explained how she was contemplating getting treatment at her age.
“I'm not in any pain right now. I'm feeling so terrific and so glad to be above ground," she said. "Now I have to figure out whether I want to go have treatment again to opt for life. I love life. I've had a wonderful one already.” Sadly, she died the following year on August 5, 2018.
Rae had had two sons, Larry and Andrew, with her husband, composer John Strauss, who died in 2011. She and Strauss divorced in 1975 after 24 years of marriage. According to her son via The New York Times, she had battled “several cancers” and had a history of heart failure.
The Challenges of Screening for Pancreatic Cancer
As Rae stated, it is typically difficult to find pancreatic cancer early. Since the pancreas is in the abdomen, it's hard to detect issues specifically within the pancreas.
Dr. Anirban Maitra from MD Anderson Cancer Center tells SurvivorNet that by the time a patient comes in with symptoms, the disease is often too advanced to treat. "By the time individuals walk into the clinic with symptoms like jaundice, weight loss, back pain, or diabetes, it's often very late in the stage of the disease," he says.
Each year in the United States, about 53,000 patients get pancreatic cancer, "And unfortunately, most will die from this disease within a few months to a year or so from the diagnosis," Dr. Maitra says. "And the reason for that is that most individuals, about 80%, will actually present with what we called advanced disease, which means that the cancer has either spread beyond the pancreas or into other organs like the liver, and so you cannot take it out with surgeries."
Parents, siblings and children of someone with pancreatic cancer are considered at high risk for the disease because they are first-degree relatives of the individual. In 2020, the American Gastroenterological Association updated its clinical guidelines for pancreatic cancer screening in high-risk individuals. At the top of the list of best practices was that screening should be considered in first-degree relatives of patients with pancreatic cancer.
"It's important for people to know there is something you can do," says Jessica Everett, the study author and a genetic counselor at NYU Langone's Perlmutter Cancer Center. "If you're concerned about pancreatic cancer in your family, start by talking to a genetic counselor to learn more about your risk and what options you have."
You may be considered high risk of developing pancreatic cancer if you carry pathogenic germline variants (PGVs) relevant to pancreatic cancer risk. A PGV is a change in a reproductive cell (sperm or egg) that becomes part of the DNA in the cells of the offspring. Germline variants are passed from parents to their children, and are associated with increased risks of several cancer types, including pancreatic, ovarian and breast cancers. Germline mutations in ATM, BRCA1, BRCA2, CKDN2A, PALB2, PRSS1, STK11, and TP53 are associated with increased risk of pancreatic cancer.
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