‘Star Trek’ Star William Shatner, 94, Says He’s ‘Blessed Beyond Measure With Health,’ Years After Beating Stage 4 Melanoma

 

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Shatner didn’t waste much time getting to his doctor so he could get the strange lump examined. To his surprise, it turned out to be stage 4 melanoma. His doctor sat him down to explain the weight of his diagnosis and lay out a treatment plan, which included immunotherapy.

“The immunotherapy aspect of my treatment kind of knocks you out. You are fighting fatigue a lot. Yet, here I am,” Shatner explained after fully recovering from treatment.

Fans flooded his holiday social media post with admiration for his resilience and vitality. “I insist you spill the beans and tell us your secret about the ‘Fountain of Youth,’” wrote Instagram user Buzz Langton. Another supporter, Linda Sales Obrien, added, “You look absolutely terrific! It’s your great attitude! You are truly inspiring.”

Shatner has been candid about his health journey, most recently opening up about living with tinnitus, a condition that causes persistent ringing or buzzing in the ears without external sound. “Over the years I’ve had many ups and downs with my tinnitus,” he shared in a YouTube video earlier this year.

His health battles have extended beyond tinnitus. Last year, Shatner revealed his stage 4 melanoma diagnosis, and in 2016, he faced another scare when elevated PSA levels during a routine screening raised concerns about prostate cancer. “That was really scary,” he told NBC News.

Melanoma starts in the same cells that give your skin, hair, and eyes their color. Only in melanoma do the cells change in a way that allows them to spread to other organs. While it’s mostly found on areas of your skin exposed to the sun, it can also develop in areas that rarely receive sun rays. These areas may include the palms of your hands, soles of your feet, your eyes, inside your mouth, and under your nails.

“When immunotherapy came on the market, it was such an exciting time for everyone involved in the care of melanoma… it went from this scary, unmanageable cancer with no treatments to one that could potentially have a long-lasting result,” explained Dr. Cecilia Larocca, dermatologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, in an interview with SurvivorNet.

WATCH: What Increases Your Risk for Melanoma?

Shatner’s skin cancer was treated with immunotherapy, which is a cancer treatment where the patient’s own immune system is reengineered to attack cancer cells.

Shatner also explained that he had a prostate cancer scare after testosterone supplements he had been taking caused his prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels to rise, which could be a sign of prostate cancer. Fortunately, once he discontinued the supplements, his PSA levels returned to normal, and further testing confirmed he did not have cancer.

Despite these health setbacks, Shatner remains remarkably active. In 2021, he became the oldest person to travel to space at the age of 90—a milestone that reflects his enduring sense of adventure and zest for life. As for his longevity secrets, Shatner credits a combination of simple yet powerful habits: avoid smoking, stay active, “eat sensibly,” and prioritize rest.

How Immunotherapy Helped Shatner Against Melanoma

Surgery remains one of the most common and effective treatments for melanoma.

For many early-stage cases, surgery alone can be curative. In more advanced situations, however, doctors often recommend follow-up therapies to strengthen results and lower the chance of the cancer returning. Adjuvant therapy refers to treatments given after surgery to boost results and lower the chance of melanoma returning. FDA-approved options for melanoma include:

• Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) – This medication is an immunotherapy that helps your immune system attack and kill cancer cells. It is a PD1 inhibitor drug that works by blocking the PD1 pathway used by cancer cells to hide from the immune system.
• Nivolumab (Opdivo) – Another form of immunotherapy, nivolumab is also a PD1 inhibitor that works similarly to pembrolizumab.
• Dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and trametinib (Mekinist) combination – This is a targeted therapy combo for patients with a BRAF V600E/K mutation fueling their cancer. About 50% of melanomas have BRAF mutations.
• Ipilimumab (Yervoy) – This medication is also an immunotherapy. Ipilimumab blocks the activity of a molecule called CTLA-4, a protein that prevents your immune system’s T cells from attacking your normal body cells and cancer cells.
• Interferon alpha (FDA-approved, but no longer recommended by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Melanoma Panel).

“We have known for a while now that immunotherapy is a very important weapon in the fight against melanoma,”  Dr. Janice Mehnert, associate director of clinical research at NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center, explains to SurvivorNet.

SurvivorNet spoke with Dr. James (Jim) Allison, a pioneer in immunotherapy research at MD Anderson Cancer Center, who was awarded a Nobel Prize for the development of the science known as checkpoint inhibitors.

“Immunotherapy is rather unique in that for the first time, we’re getting truly curative therapies in many kinds of disease– not just in melanoma but in lung cancer, kidney cancer, bladder cancer, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Merkel cell cancer, head and neck cancer,” Dr. Allison tells SurvivorNet.

“I think that the most powerful combinations coming up are based on combining immune blockers or enhancers, but also drugs that can directly kill tumor cells to really have a double whammy,” Dr. Allison added.

RELATED: Watch “Breakthrough,” The Film About Nobel Prize Winner Jim Allison And The Invention Saving Millions of Lives; Learn How Immunotherapy Can Help Late-Stage Lung Cancer

How Immunotherapy Like Keytruda Works

Cancer cells often fly under the immune system’s radar by producing proteins that disguise them as “normal.” Checkpoint inhibitors such as Keytruda break that illusion, helping white blood cells recognize and attack those cancer cells.

Rather than killing cancer directly, these treatments empower the immune system to do the job, with fewer side effects on healthy tissue.

WATCH: Immunotherapy Helps Your Body Help Itself

Common side effects of Keytruda include:

• Fatigue
• Rash or itching
• Shortness of breath or cough
• Nausea, vomiting, or appetite loss
• Diarrhea or constipation
• Low thyroid levels
• Abdominal pain

Immunotherapy Side Effects During Treatment for Melanoma

A new study published in JAMA Oncology is shedding light on the long-term side effects of immunotherapy in melanoma patients—revealing that chronic complications may be more widespread than previously thought.

“Chronic and long-lasting side effects were more common than we expected and involved a variety of often overlooked organs like the thyroid, salivary glands, and joints,” said Dr. Douglas Johnson, senior author of the study and associate professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

WATCH: Tell Your Doctor About Immunotherapy Side Effects

Despite the findings, Dr. Johnson emphasized the groundbreaking nature of immunotherapy, especially anti-PD-1 drugs. “It has been an absolute game-changer for patients with melanoma,” he noted. “I think the first thing to recognize is how really transformative the Anti-PD-1 drugs have been… patients can have very long-term responses to treatment.”

Still, for patients with advanced melanoma—especially those who’ve undergone surgical removal and have a low risk of recurrence—Dr. Johnson advised more nuanced conversations around treatment. “So determining whether the risks of the side effects, weighing the benefits of treatment with the risks of the side effects, can be an important consideration,” he said. “What our study did was we basically saw that some of these side effects were more common, really, than had been previously reported.”

Reported side effects can range from mild to severe, including dry throat, inflammation of the eye blood vessels, numbness, or tingling. And for many, the decision comes down to weighing symptom severity with potential longevity benefits.

WATCH: Managing Immunotherapy side effects.

Dr. Anna Pavlick, another expert in melanoma care, added context around immunotherapy management. “Depending upon the severity, it depends upon how we manage it,” she said.

“The percentage of patients who have very serious side effects from immunotherapy is contingent upon whether patients will get one medicine or a combination of two medicines.”

She explained that patients receiving a single immunotherapy drug face a 10–15% chance of experiencing severe reactions like rash or diarrhea. But for patients with metastatic melanoma, a dual-drug regimen—though more effective at controlling the cancer—comes with about a 50% chance of developing side effects.

FDA-Approved Immunotherapy for Melanoma

There are several FDA-approved immunotherapies for melanoma. Each is approved for certain instances of melanoma.

• Tebentafusp-tebn (Kimmtrak)
• Aldesleukin (Proleukin)
• Atezolizumab (Tecentriq)
• Dostarlimab (Jemperli)
• Interferon alfa-2b (Intron A)
• Ipilimumab (Yervoy)
• Nivolumab (Opdivo)
• Peginterferon alfa-2b (Sylatron/PEG-Intron)
• Pembrolizumab (Keytruda)
• Talimogene laherparepvec (Imlygic)
• Imiquimod (Aldara)

The goal is to steadily reduce the risk of recurrence in all patients. It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach. Some people may not be candidates for this therapy, and side effects vary from person to person.

Understanding Melanomas

Melanoma starts in the same cells that give your skin, hair, and eyes their color. In melanoma, the cells change in a way that allows them to spread to other organs.

Changes to a mole you’ve had for a while or a new growth on your skin could be signs of melanoma, according to SurvivorNet’s experts. You’ll want to watch them and tell your doctor about any changes you notice.

WATCH: How do you perform a skin check using the ABCDEs?

SurvivorNet experts recommend avoiding unprotected sun exposure because ultraviolet (UV) radiation can lead to melanoma. Tanning beds pose ultraviolet radiation risks for skin cancer and should be avoided. Many dermatologists recommend using spray tans to reduce the risk of melanoma skin cancer.

The most important thing to look out for when it comes to finding melanoma is a new spot on your skin or a spot that is changing in size, shape, or color, SurvivorNet’s medical experts say.

Treatment options for melanoma include targeted therapy and immunotherapy, which give people a better chance of living a long and healthy life than ever before. If you’re diagnosed with melanoma, there’s a good chance surgery will be the treatment your doctor recommends.

Cancer removal usually leads to a cure in the early stages of the disease. After surgery, the removed tissue and lymph nodes are examined to measure the melanoma and determine if it has clear margins. Clear margins mean the cells around the area of tissue that was removed don’t contain any melanoma. When no cancer cells are left around the removed area, your cancer is less likely to return.

WATCH: Beating Aggressive Melanoma: An Immunotherapy Success Story

For melanoma patients who need additional treatment after surgery, they are likely to receive adjuvant therapy (treatments administered after surgery). Adjuvant therapy is designed to improve outcomes and decrease the risk of recurrence.

Questions to Ask Your Doctor

If you are diagnosed with skin cancer, you may have some questions for your doctor. SurvivorNet suggests the following to help you on your cancer journey.

• What type of skin cancer do I have?
• What treatment options exist for my type of melanoma?
• Will insurance cover this treatment?
• Would treatment through a clinical trial make sense for me?
• What resources exist to help manage my anxiety because of this diagnosis?

Contributing: SurvivorNet Staff

Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.