Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

Actor Robert Urich, 55, dies of Cancer

Aired April 16, 2002 - 14:54   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: After six years of battling cancer, actor Robert Urich died today at the age of 55. Urich starred in many roles on stage, screen and television, including Dan Tanna on "Vega$" and the title character on "Spenser: For Hire."

Urich had waged a public battle with cancer after being diagnosed in 1996. Robert Urich had a rare cancer called synovial cell sarcoma. It was aggressive and virtually incurable once it spread. Here to talk more about that type of cancer and the treatments available, CNN medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen.

Elizabeth, give us a little background about this.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, as you said, this is a very difficult cancer to beat. What a lot of people don't know is that Robert Urich had the traditional treatments, but he also was what his doctors called a medical pioneer. He had an experimental treatment as well. And I'll get to that in a minute.

Let's go over some of the basics of this kind of sarcoma that he had. It is a very rare type of cancer. The peak incidence is at age 30. So it strikes very young people. Half will die of the disease. In other words, it kills half of the people that it affects.

And as I said, he had all of the traditional treatments. He had surgery, he had chemotherapy. He had radiation. And actually we can see some pictures of him as he was having those treatments. And they affected him greatly. They had many different side effects.

You can see him there. He has lost his hair from the chemotherapy. And his doctors said he wasn't feeling great after these kinds of treatments. But then doctors -- when those didn't work, when the sarcoma started in his leg, it spread to his lungs.

And the doctors said, we don't have anything else to treat you. Let's try something experimental. You will become the first sarcoma patient to take a pill called Gleevek. Now, Gleevek is used for other types of cancer but his doctors say he was the first sarcoma patient to get this pill.

And what happened with that, it seemed like he made a full recovery. It seemed like he was cancer free. He looked terrific, he felt terrific. He was actually able to go back to work. You can see him here last fall. He was a co-star in the show "Emeril." He was able to go on golf tournaments. He was able to do basically everything that he could before he was sick.

But then, unfortunately, about six weeks ago, the tumors in his lungs started to grow again and there was nothing the doctors could do. And that's when he lost his battle with cancer.

PHILLIPS: You mentioned Gleevek, and I was reading that he called this his wonder drug. He was the first one to try this out. Will there be other patients to try this too?

COHEN: Yes. As a matter of fact, the doctors who treated him at the University of Michigan are now trying this pill out on 60 different patients, and hope to add even more, with sarcoma. So they will follow in his footsteps. They're going to try it as a clinical trial and see how they do.

PHILLIPS: Elizabeth Cohen, thank you. Tough story.

COHEN: Tough story.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com