On the front page of the on-line N.Y. Daily News, the headline reads, Michael Douglas, " Oral Sex Caused My Cancer." There is a article linked to it, most of which everyone knows about, but mentions specific oral sex caused it, not smoking or drinking, and mentions Oral Cancer Foundation. I did not link the article here, due to the unkind remarks of contributors. I think this will bring the much needed attention to HPV Oral/Oropharyngeal Cancer.

Hopefully, it will end up being a teaching/learning experience. I have many questions about HPV but I haven't found anyone that can answer me.

I saw a couple comments from people that were irate the oral sex comment was brought up when it cannot be proven. I think getting visibility to something somewhat controllable will do great things towards eradication/herd-immunity. If one doesn't smoke it could be assumed the cause of the cancer would not be smoking although I believe the damage from smoking alters DNA and passes on to children in the form of damaged genes.

I was astonished at some of the cruel commentary, so I've registered and had a say (as howaboutlara). Does this American paper have a large circulation? If so, it may be worth others putting their bit in, as well.

As soon as I saw that comment, i just KNEW it was you Samkl . I find the ignorance winds me up too much so I just can't get involved in those ridiculous conversations anymore. Good on you for laying out the facts though.

Here's the interview in the Guardian (along with a sidebar) that the NY Daily News article is based on. There's also an article in the New York Post.

N.Y. Daily News has a huge ciculation. it's in the N.Y. Post too, another large paper. and probably be in all of them. The NY Post stopped readers from commenting on articles about 6 months ago, which was worse than the NY Daily News, as far as comments, probably because it's a trash newspaper. Some in the past were crazy, stupid, political, ads, funny. Obama was always mentioned in many comments, surprised he is not blamed here lol.

Thanks Leslie for posting the link, which has no rude comments.

I was so disgusted with many of the NY Daily News comments. How ignorant can people be?

I am dumbfounded by the reaction on air by my local FOX news team to this story! They didn't want to hear it, and basically said that he can't say HPV/oral sex caused his cancer because he doesn't know for sure! "TMI", they said--"moving on"
They compared his story to Angelina Jolie's, and said while she was doing a great public service, but that 'we don't need to hear this' from MIchael Douglas.

I formulated an email to FOX, but can't figure out how to get it to them, so I'll post it here instead.....

'I am disappointed in Fox News reaction Michael Douglas coming out with the news that his throat cancer was caused by the HPV virus.
TMI they said????? Really? HPV is becoming the leading cause of head and neck cancer! Six years ago as a 41 one year old woman in excellent health, I was diagnosed with stage 2/3 tonsil cancer. CAUSED BY THE HPV VIRUS. How do throat cancer patients know there cancers are caused by the HPV virus? We don't guess-----the tumors are tested for HPV markers! If Michael Douglas is claiming that his cancer was caused by the HPV virus it is because he KNOWS that his tumor tested positive for it!!! Not because he is 'guessing' as the Fox team claimed.
The team was claiming that Angelina Jolie was doing a great public service, and countered with "we don't need to hear this from Michael Douglas". Are you kidding me????
Angelina is brave? Do you have ANY idea what treatment for head and neck cancers entails??? Feeding tubes, drastic weight loss, chemo, radiation, and lifelong complications as a result of this aggressive treatment. ANYONE, including Michael Douglas, who has gone through this aggressive treatment are the brave ones.
Educate yourselves, Fox News team.
Very disappointed.'


I don't post much on here anymore, but this really irked me this morning!

Thanks Brian, more exposure! It is a difficult, sensitive topic. This will bring out more discussion, which is needed, and much is still to be learned with this disease.

Hey, it's FOX New, should that surprise anyone? I was negative for HPV, and I never smoked in my life, but I certainly applaud Michael Douglas for speaking out. The more information out there the better. I don't that there is such a thing as TMI for any type of cancer.

My local radio station was joking around about it this morning saying that Michael Douglas said he got cancer from "going down" on someone. Really??? What are we 13 years old. I 100% agree with getting the information out there about this sensitive topic but I don't necessarily agree with Michael Douglas being so crude about it. Women get cervical cancer from the HPV virus but I don't hear anyone joking about that.

Not so funny when your loved one is dealing with it.

I wouldn't go political with this. The brutal comments were also in the Huffington Post, NY Daily News etc.

The comments directed towards his wife were brutal.

It now appears that Michael Douglas claims that he was misunderstood and that he never said that.

Didn't mean to get political, the comments on Huffington and the New York Daily News were horrible, as well, but girlcat's concerns were that the actual anchors on her local FOX station were kind of pooh poohing the HPV link, while applauding Angelina's preventative surgery for breast cancer. I guess any way to get the information out there is good. At least people are talking about it. Hopefully, those of us who deal with this horrible disease can set the record straight to those who are making jokes and show their ignorance.

I am upset that the negative and ignorant comments from people have made it necessary for Michael Douglas to "clarify" that he wasn't blaming his cancer on oral sex
http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/dougla...his-throat-cancer-spokesperson-1.1308306
and that "experts" are maintaining that it is not possible to pinpoint one single cause. These prudes are going to undo the wonderful work that people like Brian Hill and Christine B have spent years doing. Michael Douglas needs to know that he has a lot of people from this forum who applaud his courage in stating what is a fact.

I am going to put out a press release tomorrow AM on PR Newswire that make Michael look like a real hero for talking about this and the enormous impact that it has on the world. That should help him feel good about what he has done and hopefully get him to own this. Sent out a Tweet today praising him.

By the by OCF is getting slammed with interview request from the media and for backgrounder info in the disease and HPV. The interviews have not stopped since 4 AM. People Magazine, Time CNN, FOX news etc. So we are really getting lots of play from a this. I hope that Michael realizes that he is changing the world and wants to own this, not back up from it.

YESSSS!!!!

Yay, Brian!!!!

Brian,

Michael's wife is being vilified and maybe he didn't have her approval to discuss this.

Some of the 'experts' are also making statements that are not what I have heard from my doctors. Are they correct?

Thanks
Stacey

[quote=girlcat36]I am dumbfounded by the reaction on air by my local FOX news team to this story! [/quote]It's not just the Fox Newsies who are doing this. This morning I was watching MSNBC's "Morning Joe," where in the first part of the first hour there was a segment involving a LOT of wink-wink, nudge-nudge, guffaw-guffaw about the NY Post story among Joe Scarborough (admittedly a conservative) and the more liberal members of the MJ team -- including, I regret to say, Mika Brzezinski, whom I always considered a voice of reason in that group. I found contact information for the show and shot off a quick email castigating them for their sophomoric efforts at "humor" -- noting that behaving similarly if the subject was a woman talking about how she got cervical cancer would set off a Twitter storm. I also noted that there was a preventative vaccine for the carcinogenic forms of HPV and that perhaps their air time might better be used to urge vaccination against this potentially deadly virus (as Texas Governor Rick Perry did; he may have faults, but that wasn't one of them) instead of making fun of Michael Douglas for his sexual behavior.

I'd like to think it made a difference. Normally the first 20 minutes or so of the 8 a.m. hour consists of a rerun of the first 20 minutes of the 6 a.m. hour. Not today!

I just read today that Jim Kelly, hall of fame QB of the Buffalo Bills was diagnosed with SCC of the upper jaw. Perhaps this can be another positive that can piggy back along with Michael Douglas.

"T"

Good Morning America interviewed their doctor and he discussed this maturely and suggested the vaccine. I think Robin Roberts would have punched someone if they had been tacky about it.

Way to go Brian!

Brain, as always....great job!!!

Its about time HPV, OC and OCF got some attention. Looking forward to seeing how this plays out.

I look forward to reading Brian's press release. I guess there will be a link here?
I have read so much misinformation written in the last 24 hours and also look forward to see how it plays out.
Gabriele

Yes. Please provide a link. I am looking forward to Brian's press release as well.

This is probably not going to be available until tomorrow afternoon. I did 34 interviews today in the media, on Iive radio in local markets like St. Louis, and had more conversation with journalists than I could count, giving them background information on HPV and oral cancer. I literally started talking at 5 in the morning and did not get off the phone till 6 tonight. Natalie at the office got the callers in a queue, and I started working each one. What a day�. my voice is gone. The media people were all pretty good, some were just looking for a quick factoid, some wanted strong background that took lots of time to get them to understand things, and some wanted just referrals to good doctors to get on their TV shows. LONG day, but a good day for the cause.

As we all saw today, my grandfathers adage that the "masses are asses" still is true. The comments from the general public in most of this are probably why Douglas is backpedaling on his statement about HIS cancer being HPV+, who would have guessed it would have blown up Google and the social media world when he gave one simple interview. Allen who is his gatekeeper put out the release stating that he didn't mean HIS cancer, but this is obviously not what he said when he did the original interview.

I think his entire team is overwhelmed by the public shitstorm this opened up. When I talk about my sex life on TV only my wife cringes and gives me crap, 90 % of the whole world is giving him shit. This is all really too bad. We have a celebrity advocate that was willing to stick his neck out, and what happens. Idiots happen.

Brian,

Thank you and great job.

Brian, you sure had one heck of a day! Great work!!! Thank you for attempting to educate the media people. Hope some of them will get it right.

Thanks for everything you do to make this world a better place.

Thank you SO much Brian! Maybe this whole s. . . storm will have served a purpose in bringing the masses to you for a little education! I felt so badly for Mike Douglas and for his wife when I saw the eye-rolling and the innuendos on the Hoda and Kathy Lee show about who could have given him his oral cancer. He has been such a strong and great advocate for our cause. Looking forward to the interview.

I was glad to read in the mainstream newspapers balanced, factually accurate articles on oral cancer and HPV this morning. I am sorry fthat Michael Douglas and his wife had to take so much abuse from the ignorant masses, but he has succeeded in raising awareness. Today I also read that in Ontario, Canada, the public officers are going to propose to extend access to Gardasil to boys as well (girls already have access). That is a big step forward.

Michael Douglas, I applaud your courage.

I also spent a great deal of time on the phone yesterday (not as much as our GREAT ONE though) and I am trying to get one of these interviewers to put me on air. My message was simple, the focus should not be on oral sex but on HPV as it is extremely prevalent; HPV is highly transmittable; HPV causes cancer in both men and women; cancer kills and there is a proven vaccine that can prevent HPV and therefor ALL the cancers and deaths that would follow it's infection. PERIOD

This morning in The Philadelphia Inquirer online, I read an article about Michael Douglas.

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/...d-GlaxoSmithKline-and-well-you-know.html

I was so incensed by it and the author's immature attitude that I wrote an email to him. I am including it here. I encourage ALL of you to respond to stories that offend and just plain get it wrong by email. We are the voices of oral cancer and we can have an impact by demanding that news organizations get their facts straight and report responsibly. While I have not gotten a response from the writer yet, I hope that I do. And I will share it with you here.

[quote]David,

As the wife of an oral cancer survivor, I am disappointed that you did not delve deep enough into this story. Your claim that big pharma "drug companies make money by selling drugs to as many people as possible at the highest price possible�" shows how short sighted you are. You have down a great disservice to the readership by not relaying all of the facts.

One of the leading causes of Head and Neck cancers is the HPV virus. Most of the sexually active adult population has been infected with the HPV virus sometime in their lives. Fortunately, the immune system will clear the virus, leaving no evidence that it was there. And one can be infected multiple times.

I am writing to you because I am passionate about spreading awareness about oral cancers. My husband is a 6 year survivor of this deadly disease. For years, oral cancer was the old man's disease, affecting heavy smokers, and drinkers. My husband was neither a smoker nor a heavy drinker. We do not know the origin of his specific cancer. However, there is evidence that more and more young people are being diagnosed with HPV+ oral cancers.

I am a member of the non-profit, The Oral Cancer Foundation, who has done much to educate and inform others about oral cancer. There are over 44,000 people worldwide who rely on this website for information and support. I
suggest you go to their website and read the plethora of facts and studies done on behalf of this disease. Brian Hill, who is an oral cancer survivor himself, started this organization when he could not find the resources he needed when he was diagnosed many years ago. He works tirelessly to spread awareness about this disease. I am sure he would welcome your request for an interview.

oralcancerfoundation.org

My husband's life is forever changed. He speaks with great difficulty. Eating is a no longer enjoyable for him as he chokes and coughs during the hour long ordeal. The result from the 12 surgeries and radiation. And we are the lucky ones. There are many who have not survived, others who will never taste food again as they use a feeding tube for nutrition. My husband lost his jaw, some have lost their lives.

Michael Douglas is a supporter and advocate for The Oral Cancer Foundation. We are grateful that he has chosen to make his story public as this will help increase awareness.

Vaccinating boys will go a long way to prevention of oral cancers. Hopefully, the younger generation may not have to deal with this awful disease.

Do everyone a service and write a story that informs and educates. Take the high road. The headline, "..and, well, you know" is irritatingly pubescent. Grow up.

Sincerely,
Anita McGinn-Natali[/quote]

Well said, Anita. I had my six month check up with my ENT this morning and we discussed the snarky comments which have come out after MD's interview. My ENT reiterated what OCF has been preaching for a long time, mainly that HPV is the fastest growing cause of oral cancer. I believe that MD was trying to educate people to this very fact, and the attacks on him and his wife have been just horrendous.

Well done Anita! I would have also sent it to that reporters supervisor and/or the editor of the newspaper.

Im sure that story is not the only one floating around today that has wrong info and the person behind it could care less about making it right.

@ Davidcpa.... I hope some of the media will take you up on your offer to educate them. You know a considerable amount of info about HPV and will hopefully help them to 'get it right'. If they will only listen and absorb what you tell them.

I zipped off an e-mail to Bill O'Reilly Fox News tonight. He put down Michael Douglas about his comments concerning Oral Cancer. He said, he should keep his personal business to himself. That did it. I told him to do his homework research Oral Sex and Oral Cancer HPV and to read about it on the Oral Cancer Foundation website. I said, Michael Douglas wasn't blaming his wife he wanted others to be aware what can happen.

I can't believe how uneducated some people are he should have reserched it before opening his mouth.

I am so grateful that Brian and the OCF are here to provide fact now that the HPV/oral cancer link is now being discussed in the media!

Our local mainstream radio station were joking about this story saying MD was making up how he got oral cancer. I was fuming and fired off this email.

As a long time listener (20+ years) I was horrified this morning to hear you discuss Michael Douglas' annoucement that oral sex caused his cancer as something of fiction.

My husband, Ken, was diagnosed with stage IV base of tongue cancer like Mr. Douglas after a year of complaining of a sore throat. His cancer also tested positive for the HPV virus. Ken went through a similar treatment plan - 7 weeks of daily radition and weekly chemotherapy. He required a feeding tube and went from 280lbs to 220lbs. Less than 4 months after finishing his treatment he was diagnosed again and was scheduled to have his tongue and voicebox removed. At the time of diagnosis our daughter was 7 months old. We now faced the reality that she would never hear her father's voice or be able to sit down and have a "normal" family dinner with him. As we prepared for the surgery we tried our best to look toward the future and adjust to our "new normal". The morning before the surgery an artery in Ken's throat burst and he bled to death on our front steps waiting for the ambulance. Ken was 44 and our daughter was only 14 months old.

These graphic details are meant to shock you. They are meant to hopefully have you give pause to your comments this morning. As Ken's oncologist explained to us, if you have had more than 2 sexual partners in your life you have most likely been exposed to the HPV virus. In most cases your body is able to fight off the virus. Ken and Michael Douglas we not that fortunate. There is now a push for both girls and boys to be vaccinated with Guardasil to prevent them from contracting HPV (which also causes cervical cancer).

The Oral Cancer Foundation (oralcancerfoundation.org) is holding their Boston Walk for Awareness on October 6th at the Chestnut Hill Reservoir. What better way for your to pass on CORRECT information than to help us raise awareness for this REAL and deadly disease. I would be happy to be a part of your show to discuss my story and would welcome KISS as a sponsor of our walk. I have attached the information about the walk and sponsorship.

Good work, as always, Brian!

Great email, Anita!

I did end up sending my email off to FOX News, but got no response. I'm not surprised.

As some of you may know, I was one of the first HPV+ OC patients to go public in 2008 with the cause for my cancer. It was not easy at the time; I was on Good Morning America and The Doctors. Both programs did their darndest to put a sensationalist spin on the story. I tried my best not to feed into it. It was difficult to go public with the story, but I would do it again if need be. I did it because people need to KNOW. Doctors need to KNOW. And clearly, the general public still needs to know, despite the efforts of Brian Hill and the OCF, and OC patients!
There was a 2-3 year delay in my treatment because a unilaterally swollen tonsil in a young healthy woman was deemed no cause for concern. My tumor sat there staring my ENT in the face while it grew to the size of a walnut. Only when it was taking up half my throat did they remove it and discover it was cancer.
My point is that if the HPV link to OC were more commonly known, I would have been diagnosed MUCH earlier and not have needed such an agressive treatment. I WISH I HAD KNOWN ABOUT THIS IN 2005! I wish someone like me(or Michael Douglas) had come forward with this information. That is why I am passionate about people understanding the HPV connection to this cancer. And I don't care what people do with their sex lives; they just need to HAVE this information instead of hiding their heads in the sand about it. As far as I'm concerned people can keep on doing whatever it is they do behind closed doors but they need to be educated about the HPV link so that early detection, if need be, can take place.

I am extremely concerned about Michael Douglas's need to back peddle. I am also concerned that since Michael Douglas was known for his promiscuity, people may think it can't happen to them if they are not, or never were, promiscuous. Which we all know is not true, but I can see where that one will be going in the media.

The sophomoric reactions are really ridiculous. I just want to scream "grow up, people!" It's all funny until it happens to them personally, or to a loved one.

Teresa

Christine,

Thank you for the suggestion. I just sent my letter to the op-ed page of The Inquirer. I'll let you know if it gets published.

Jill, my heart goes out to you. I'm so very sorry.
I hope your email strikes a chord in those people(KISS 108?)

Well, below is the text of my second post yesterday on the NY Daily News website. But let me tell you, I ain't going back there. It's like visiting a sewer. I am gobsmacked by some of the posts.

"I hope Michael Douglas and his family know that there are many, many thousands of people around the world who applaud his courage. One thing is absolutely certain - he has saved lives by bringing this issue to the public's attention, if it leads to an increase in vaccination rates for boys and girls.

Stop and think of the service he has done - he didn't have to go public but wants it known that this is a preventable cancer, which can be vaccinated against and which should be screened for.

The majority of women who have been diagnosed with cervical cancer have been exposed to HPV, through sexual intercourse, yet we don't rush to humiliate them.

Let's grow up and leave our adolescence behind and have an adult discussion about this health issue. Get your children vaccinated, and the next time someone makes a joke about Mr Douglas be big enough to say, yes well he's made me stop and think about my own kids health.

I applaud his courage - and thank him for putting himself so uncomfortably in the spotlight."

Nicely said.

Great letters Anita, Jill and Teresa. Thank you for speaking up on our behalf.

Nicely timed and played. I think MD can handle himself, but his children and the abuse they'll deal with was the first thing I thought of, I feel for them. Totally understand why he kept this on the qt, yet just following the breadcrumbs of his past comments indicated this was an HPV 16+ tumor.

It's been my point of view that HPV, like HIV, strikes fear, then stages to "not me" before swiftly moving to late night tv ridicule. As this story morphs, recognize that so much of the commentary comes from ignorance and stupidity-by-choice.

I have been avidly following the Michael Douglas story in the news for the last few days. Like many of you, I am very pleased that this has raised awareness of oral cancer and the HPV link. I am viewing these stories from the "other side of the pond" and thought you might want to read this article from The Sun - which I find refreshingly truthful, factual and without the sneering, stupid innuendos of many other tabloid newspapers.


http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepag...-oral-sex-cancer-as-Michael-Douglas.html

Great work Brian, and thanks too to Kenswife, Anita and Teresa for all their efforts.

Has anyone noted an increase in members? I don't know what it was when the article came out, but yesterday it was 8915, today it's 8921.

[quote=Brian Hill]This is probably not going to be available until tomorrow afternoon. I did 34 interviews today in the media, on Iive radio in local markets like St. Louis, and had more conversation with journalists than I could count, giving them background information on HPV and oral cancer. I literally started talking at 5 in the morning and did not get off the phone till 6 tonight. Natalie at the office got the callers in a queue, and I started working each one. What a day�. my voice is gone. The media people were all pretty good, some were just looking for a quick factoid, some wanted strong background that took lots of time to get them to understand things, and some wanted just referrals to good doctors to get on their TV shows. LONG day, but a good day for the cause.

As we all saw today, my grandfathers adage that the "masses are asses" still is true. The comments from the general public in most of this are probably why Douglas is backpedaling on his statement about HIS cancer being HPV+, who would have guessed it would have blown up Google and the social media world when he gave one simple interview. Allen who is his gatekeeper put out the release stating that he didn't mean HIS cancer, but this is obviously not what he said when he did the original interview.

I think his entire team is overwhelmed by the public shitstorm this opened up. When I talk about my sex life on TV only my wife cringes and gives me crap, 90 % of the whole world is giving him shit. This is all really too bad. We have a celebrity advocate that was willing to stick his neck out, and what happens. Idiots happen.[/quote]

Has the interview come out yet? I've been side tracked by my husbands immune system crashing; today was the 1st chance I had to start reading the links.

[quote=Brian Hill]By the by OCF is getting slammed with interview request from the media and for backgrounder info in the disease and HPV. The interviews have not stopped since 4 AM. People Magazine, Time CNN, FOX news etc. So we are really getting lots of play from a this. I hope that Michael realizes that he is changing the world and wants to own this, not back up from it.[/quote]

If I'm reading this story Michael Douglas pleased that oral sex story raised public awareness right; he's still denying what he said?

I'm disappointed (but not surprised) that this was not done better. He had a chance to educate people with facts. I've followed him since his diagnosis & feel he could have done much more for oral cancer.

People Magazine Michael Douglas Clarifies Remarks About Cancer and Oral Sex

Decent article in today's New York Times. Comments are moderated, fyi, so perhaps better than in some other papers.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/10/oral-cancer-sneaks-up/

Thanks for posting. Yes, a better read from a respected newspaper.

[quote=littlebird]Decent article in today's New York Times. Comments are moderated, fyi, so perhaps better than in some other papers.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/10/oral-cancer-sneaks-up/ [/quote]

Thanks for the link. Definitely a better article!

From the article-

[quote]However, such �fairly modest changes� in sexual habits do not explain why the cancer risk has doubled or tripled over the years, said Gypsyamber D�Souza, a viral cancer specialist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. It has risen the most in white men 45 and up. The older age is explained by the fact that, like cervical cancer, it can take decades to develop.[/quote]

I wish they would do better research on the person's life style before cancer hit them. We had a post on another board to find similarities in everyone diagnosed; every one posted about an immune hit; usually getting sick; then some type of accident. With my hub; he was working really hard each time to catch up after losing work from being out. He was more stressed & slept less.

My son's aunt was just diagnosed with lung cancer; her story is similar; so was my dad's who passed from leukemia.

You're welcome. It's interesting observing the reactions since Michael Douglas went public(ish). I'm glad that I didn't see the other articles and related comments.

This is an article in an Australian Business magazine but thought it might be of interest ?

http://www.brw.com.au/p/entrepreneurs/michael_douglas_might_have_fared_faUtgY4MaBnBLVFPYvQEwM

Very good article, thanks Gabe.

It may be a function of Google but it seems the vitriole around Michael Douglas' admission of the cause of his cancer has died down a bit and a sense of reason has returned.

It really doesn't matter if the topic is the latest real or made up political scandal or Douglas's comment. The Internet trolls for the most part only show the stupidity of the bulk of American's commenting online- not only how little they know, but how often their prejudice, bigotry, and willingness to say the stupidest things dominates. This is what living behind a blind screen name affords you, the ability to say whatever you want without thought of other's feelings or your impact on them, or to promote lies and propaganda, to others. They eventually crawl back into they cowardly holes when they can't bait anyone into a fight any longer. Thank God that the Douglas thing has finally reached that point and a serious discussion can take place. But there is little question that while he and his wife paid the price for what he should have had stated in a more complete and articulate way, he has raised awareness that was much needed. Now we need to fill the opening with good solid information.

I just (as this was all breaking) edited and added to the OCF HPV pages. In one hour after we were mentioned in the Huffington Post story, we had 14,000 hits on that one page of our web site. That's not a typo, 14k in one hour, and it went on for days like that.

Well said, Brian. It's good to see that the expertise of OCF is acknowledged by the public.

Everyone now needs to watch MD and his familys "6" as no matter how stated by MD he put OC out in the public domain and it is up to us to now fill the fox holes and advance the truth in our WAR!! Semper-Fi Bob

Was front page Vancouver sun today

It rare for me to rant in here...but here it comes...

What are the qualifications for the IDIOTS who write articles on celebrities, particularly when they attempt to take on medical research?

Today's People magazine (read ONLY because of a long checkout and anticipated ignorance) states that "Only their close friends know why they split" followed immediately by comments of the "friend" who claims that their split, in part, was because CZJ was mortified about MD's HPV16 coming out.

A couple things:
-ARE people this stupid? This includes the article's author at the front of the line.
-Is it believable that the Douglas' haven't known for a long time what HPV16 is? And that (for these exact reasons which I TOTALLY understand and respect) he didn't talk about it when he first was diagnosed?

Ok, done. I feel awful for them, having tracked his progress since my Dad got diagnosed.

Well it certainly didn't cause or contribute to my Oral Cancer - and I bitterly resent the inferences.

It got you to pick the rag up. That's all those rags are about. Sensationalism sells. They could give a damn about what they say as long as they sell the rags. Unfortunately there are MANY stupid gullible, whatever people out there that actually believe what they read in these rags.

There was a blurb on the TV news about their split over the weekend and I thought, "how long til the first pub blames it on the cause of his cancer." Didn't have time to blink--inaccurate and just plain wrong.

David, I understand the marketplace for sensationalized journalism. The motivation for picking it up (and not purchasing) was to see how OC is being misrepresented, and unfortunately the article exceeded my expectations.

Now please don't think I was including you or anyone on this site in my "MANY stupid gullible, whatever people out there".

No clue what's going on; my posts are disappearing...

[quote=Roselvr]No clue what's going on; my posts are disappearing... [/quote]

People Magazine Michael Douglas - I lied; I actually had tongue cancer

Access Hollywood article Michael Douglas had tongue cancer, not throat cancer: my doctor said to lie

Roselvr, to help with your posting problem, try not to copy/paste when making posts. Before you send you post, on the bottom always toggle the UBB Code to say both UBB and HTML. If you do both of those things and still have a problem posting, please let me know.

[quote=ChristineB]Roselvr, to help with your posting problem, try not to copy/paste when making posts. Before you send you post, on the bottom always toggle the UBB Code to say both UBB and HTML. If you do both of those things and still have a problem posting, please let me know. [/quote]

That's what I partially did was some c/p. Is c/p not allowed here?

It's not that it is not allowed, it sometimes copies/picks up some computer code in the process that cases an issue with how posts appear.

When I first noticed this glitch happening, and because at times only the UBB code appears and when I thought I might be posting something longer that just a few sentences and risk losing the whole thing - - I just write my post on a word file, and with both windows open so I could see the OCF posting box plus my own word file, I just re-type into the posting box while copying my word file post (but not copy/paste). I type very fast so that's what works for me (in case it helps someone else).

PS: Hope I didn't do any hi-jacking here. . . . so back to Michael Douglas - an actor I greatly admire for his acting and especially for bringing awareness to Oral Cancer and to OCF!

Brian - Do you have any insight as to the treatment that Michael Douglas received? I see that your name was mentioned in the recent article. Did he have surgery or did he go right into Chemo/Rad treatments?
We asked our ENT if the surgery could be postponed until after the chemo/rad treatments so that impact to tongue could be reduced. She looked at us like we were crazy.
Thanks!

HI Jo

Michael Douglas did not undergo surgery. His treatment was either chemoradiation or radiation. My recollection is that it was chemoradiation.

The reason your ENT gave you a funny look is probably because she failed to recognise the misunderstanding (her problem - not yours).

So just to clarify something that you may not have been told: Radiation causes permanent damage to the area being irradiated. In particular, slowed healing is of concern so surgery becomes a little bit more risky and complicated (and painful). Surgery is often performed first to avoid potential issues.

So going back to your question of the ENT... what this means is that if surgery had been postponed until AFTER the radiation, it might actually have had a worse impact than doing it the other way round.

Does this make sense?

Each of us has a different disease presentation and what one person had vs another is not an apples and apples kind of thing. So some people have radiation and chemo and no surgery, some have surgery only, some have all three. It is so much a function of how advanced your disease is, and where it is located, and how invasive it has become. So the answer is Douglas had no surgery, but that answer really doesn't mean anything to anyone else but him.

Just to add one to Brian's list of reasons why all of our Tx's can be different....HPV status.