Oscar-nominated actor, Dennis Hopper, announced through his manager, Sam Maydew, yesterday that he is canceling all current and future appearances in order to concentrate on his health. Maydew annouced that Dennis was diagnosed with prostate cancer, but is “hoping for the best” and will be undergoing a course of treatment at the University of Southern California.
Born in Dodge City, Kansas in 1936, Hopper is considered in Hollywood to be one of the most multi-talented, yet unconventional artists around. Known in the past for some wildness, he settled down with his fifth wife, Actress Victoria Duffy, in 1996. They have one son together and he has three other children from previous marriages.
While his name is most closely associated with titles from his career such as “Easy Rider”, “Blue Velvet”, and “Apocalypse Now”, Hopper has a career in cinema that spans five decades. He is known also for his directing, writing, and photography skills.
Last month, Hopper was released from a New York hospital after suffering dehydration and flu-like symptoms while promoting his current series on the Starz network, “Crash”. While he has been on hiattus from production since season two finished shooting, Hopper was scheduled to appear next month at Melbourne’s Australian Centre for the Moving Image. The Centre is showing ‘Dennis Hopper and the New Hollywood’, which is a collection of his artwork and photography.
Actor turned artist, Dennis Hopper, has just been diagnosed with prostate cancer and is cancelling his upcoming plans to focus on his treatment.
Hopper was scheduled to be flying to Australia next week to appear at his exhibition of art and photography called Dennis Hopper and the New Hollywood which is being displayed at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image.
His manager issued a statement about his condition, simply saying “We’re hoping for the best”. The 73 year-old is being treated through a special treatment program at the University of Southern California.
Hopper recently completed filming the second season of “Crash”, a TV version of the Oscar winning movie.
His exhibition starts on November 12 and continues through to April 25, 2010.
British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber is currently undergoing medical treatment after he was diagnosed with early stage prostate cancer.
Webber, 61, famous for his musicals, including The Phantom Of The Opera and Evita, is expected to return to work full time before the end of the year, according to his spokesman.
Earlier this month, Webber unveiled details about “Love Never Dies”, a sequel to the “Phantom of the Opera”,
The show is scheduled to open in March.
The University of Toronto has developed a new tool to help diagnose prostate cancer in just a matter of minutes. The tool is able to test for prostate cancer without painful biopsies. This will encourage more people to get tested for cancer, and save more lives.
The device measures the cancer causing antigens in a urine or blood sample and can have results in about 30 minutes or less. This makes the waiting time for patients, much more bearable verses waiting weeks to hear back from your doctor. The device is still in the beginning stages, and if it is approved for use, it will still take a couple of years before it is seen in doctors offices.
The device can also be used to test for head and neck cancers or some infectious diseases like MRSA, HIV, and H1N1.
This device has the potential to save money in expensive medical testing and lab work. It will be able to tell the type of cancer and what stage the cancer is in, by reading markers in a urine or blood sample.
The challenge for scientists around the world, will be identifying specific markers for the 1000 or so different known cancers. Only 9 have had the specific markers identified thus far.
The device will eventually have an assortment of chips, each chip will be used to look for different illnesses. Eventually the chips will have the ability to be programmed to each doctors specific concentration levels of disease biomarkers that they are looking for.
THERE IS HELP FOR OUR MEN!
Every man AND woman fears prostate cancer. It can take away our husband, father, brother, child, nephew and friend. A cure needs to be found along with all the other cancers.
Studies recently have found that perhaps prostate cancer is associated with a virus. The virus is called Xenotropic Murine Leukemia Virus. This virus is also known as XMRV. The medical community finds this study to be very exciting because possibly they will be able to eliminate the deadliest tumors. There are many men with prostate cancer that find it early, they are cured and can go on cancer free. These more potent tumors don’t go away so easily. It is hopeful that by recognizing and identifying XMRV men will automatically know that they are at higher risk and get help immediately.. Not all patients with prostate cancer have this virus. It is just in the most aggressive form of prostate cancer. If these patients could get diagnosed and treated earlier that would be a real breakthrough. This would eliminate much stress from the patient, family and friends.
The PSA test has been the test that identifies prostate cancer. Now that we can identify a possible virus linked to prostate cancer, we can next create a test to look for this virus. In this case, finding this virus would be more helpful than the PSA test. Researchers are now curious that women may have the virus and they are now studying cells from pap smears.
Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of death in men. Lung cancer is the first. Every year around 250,000 men die from prostate cancer. In the United States about 25, 000 will die and approximately another 200,000 will be diagnosed with this disease. If this study has found just one link to slow down the deaths from prostate cancer the whole world would be happy. This research gives hope to the men diagnosed with prostate cancer, because maybe a cure is on the way quicker than we think.