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Dana Reeve Dies of Lung Cancer at 44; A Look at Integrative Medicine

Aired March 07, 2006 - 13:34   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Strength tempered with grace and iron will and a caring soul. Remembering Dana Reeve today, as her friends, and fans and family mourn her death from lung cancer at the age of 44. Reeve revealed that she was stricken last August, less than a year after losing her famous husband, Christopher. They are survived by their 13-year-old son, Will. Dana Reeve was an ever-present aide and supporter of Christopher Reeve after he was paralyzed in a horse riding accident. She went on to chair his foundation, becoming an outspoken advocate for paralysis research, and stayed strong until the very end.
Reeve sang at an event in January, showing her talents as a former nightclub singer. Reeve also was an actress, appearing on stage and TV. Lung cancer kills quickly. And among nonsmokers, women are stricken more often than men. Here's the facts.

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PHILLIPS (voice-over): Nonsmokers make up 20 percent of female lung cancer patients. The number is lower for men: Just 10 percent are nonsmokers. Doctors haven't found an explanation for these numbers. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among both men and women. More people die of lung cancer than of colon, breast and prostate cancers combined.

During 2006, it's estimated there will be 174,000 new cases of lung cancer and 162,000 deaths. The average age of people diagnosed with the disease is 70. Dana Reeve was just 44 when she was diagnosed. According to a researcher at the American Cancer Institute, fewer than 3 percent of lung tumors occurs in people younger than 45. Lung cancer kills quickly. Nearly 60 percent of those diagnosed with the disease die within one year. Dana Reeve was diagnosed just last summer.

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PHILLIPS: Turning to family and friends and letting your memories bubble up. Dana Reeve explained why all are a necessary part of the grieving process in an interview with Larry King in February of last year.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LARRY KING, "LARRY KING LIVE" HOST: Dana, how do you deal with grief? DANE REEVE, WIDOW OF CHRISTOPHER REEVE: How do you deal with grief? Well, I'm learning. I think after Chris's accident, there was a sense of loss, but we were able to share it. And I'm finding that now, really, what you need to do is, you need to turn to family and you need to turn to friends and you need to truly have the person inhabit you. And I feel like that has happened.

I also believe the only cure for grief is grieving. You really need to let it -- things come up, things sort of bubble up at sometimes inappropriate times or whatever, but -- a lot of memories. And gradually, I'm told, eventually, you have a feeling that -- you know, you start feeling OK. But I'm a pretty positive person, so I'm pretty forward thinking.

KING: Did you and Chris talk about dying?

REEVE: Definitely, because we were living a life that was really always on the edge. There was a lot of challenge and a lot of hardship. When you live with a spinal cord injury, there are a life- threatening situations on a regular basis. There are a lot of issues that you deal with. And we were not afraid to have big talks. We were not afraid of emotion. And luckily, though, in a way, I think people take for granted sometimes their life and what they have, and we were very much aware of what we had and the gifts of life. And that's one of the ironic hidden gifts behind disability is that you just realize the gifts that you have are precious, and family and relationships.

KING: Did he ever say how he wanted to be memorialized?

REEVE: He always said he wanted it to be a party. And I had to apologize to him. I said, I don't really feel much like having a party. I apologized to his spirit. But we did celebrate his life. Absolutely. He had a lot to celebrate. And in the 52 years that he lived, he accomplished so much, and particularly in the last nine-and- a-half. The work the foundation has done, and his work personally, in Washington and for the disabled in this country is huge. Huge.

KING: His last day was a good one, though, right?

REEVE: It was great one. It was a great one. It's exactly how he liked to spend his day. He went to a hockey game and watched Will play. And the team won, and Will got the game puck for his level of play. He had a conversation with John Kerry on the phone and gave him a couple pieces of advice, which is very typical for Chris. We talked on the phone from California, and we talked about how much I wanted to -- I couldn't wait to get home and how great it had been, the two weeks prior.

I was traveling home every weekend, actor's weekends, Sunday to Tuesday. And I had been home -- a couple weeks before, we had had Matthew and Alexandra and Will all together for Chris's birthday, and we talked about how great that was and how well everyone seemed. And he just seemed so happy. And that night, he watched the Yankee game with Will. And then, you know, later he -- oh, that's a picture from the birthday. That was two weeks before. I love that picture. And so that evening, that Saturday evening, he -- you know, he slipped into the coma quite quickly. So -- and you asked before if it was peaceful, and I imagine, in that sense, it was. He was unconscious for, you know...

KING: There was no autopsy, right?

REEVE: No. We had really the best possible caregivers, and there's no question in my mind that everyone did the absolute right thing. I -- you know, I had questioned everyone afterwards, What happened? Did you do this? Did you do that? And everyone acted exactly the way that they should have. And it was just unfortunate. It is difficult. With his level of spinal cord injury and the infections he was battling, some mysterious, and his particular physiology, that he had to deal with a lot of other challenges additionally, just the fact that he reacted -- you know, he had adverse reactions to a lot of different drugs, and that was always a challenge, as well.

KING: Was Will at the hospital?

REEVE: Will came to the hospital when -- shortly after I arrived. Yes, he was there.

KING: Who told -- was he at the bedside?

REEVE: I told. He saw his dad, and I told him. And he kissed his dad on the head and he wiggled his toe, which is how he used to say good night to him.

KING: How did he take it?

REEVE: Well, it was a terrible, terrible shock. And you know, I think, really, it's the long term that you look at, that kind of news. It's nothing that anyone can take lightly. But I think he really showed who he is and who he will become when he spoke at Chris's memorial service. And I think -- you know, we are a family that has dealt with a lot of adversity and a lot of challenges. And I think that he can trust that life has a lot of joy and laughter even amidst pain and hardship. And that's another great gift, to be able to live a life with joy that can coexist with hardship and pain. You know, it's a life lesson I wouldn't have wished on him, but at the same time, he has coping skills that I think a lot of 12-year-olds might not.

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PHILLIPS: That was Dana Reeve, speaking with Larry King in February 2005.

Well, we're talking about dealing with cancer today on LIVE FROM, and we know that many of you have questions. And we have doctors waiting to answer them. E-mail us at livefrom@CNN.com. Straight ahead, Dr. Andrew Weil, one of the nation's top practitioners of alternative medicine, joins me live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: When conventional medicine fails in the battle against cancer, what do you do? A lot of patients turn to alternative treatments.

Dr. Andrew Weil is regarded as one of the nation's foremost practitioners of alternative medicine. He's the founder and director of the program of integrative medicine at the University of Arizona. He joins us now by phone from Tucson, Arizona.

Dr. Weil, thanks for being with us

DR. ANDREW WEIL, PROGRAM IN INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE: Hi, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: So, just to give a little context and a little background, how did you decide to take the approach of alternative medicine and make that your specialty?

WEIL: Well, actually, it's integrative medicine, which is combining alternative and conventional medicine. So I am not a practitioner of alternative medicine. I teach and practice integrative medicine. I've been interested in this since before I went to medical school.

PHILLIPS: Now that's interesting -- OK, now I'm getting the terms, because I didn't realize integrative was a separate term from alternative. So let's set the story straight. Because there are some spas that call -- you know, they're called holistic spas and they talk about alternative medicine. And then you have -- I always think of Dr. Deepak Chopra, too. He talks about taking the holistic approach, along with the medical approach. The proper term is alternative -- or, I mean, integrative?

WEIL: Integrative. And you've actually caught me -- I'm right in the middle of a training. We have 75 physicians here as a part of their two-year training in integrative medicine this week. So this is rapidly catching on with physicians who want to learn the things they didn't learn in medical school, not only the kind of lifestyle medicine, nutritional approaches, you know, but what's out there in the world of alternative medicine that may be useful.

PHILLIPS: Well, it's interesting to find well-known universities like Harvard University and other Ivy League universities are incorporating this, whether it's meditation, prayer, other types of integrative approaches. It is becoming more popular, and it's proving to be effective, right?

WEIL: Yes, and with cancer specifically, I think there's an interesting situation. In China today, in all of the big hospitals and big cities, all cancer patients get both. They get radiation, chemotherapy, surgery, and they get Chinese herbs and acupuncture and dietary approaches. And the Chinese experience is that they have better outcomes, that they can use lower doses of chemotherapy and radiation. They have better side effect profiles.

In this country, I think we're really backward in that it's one or the other. So there is now this beginning movement to try to train doctors to use both.

PHILLIPS: Why are we so backwards?

WEIL: Well, I think it's that our medical profession has viewed all these other systems as either nonsense or as threats, and it's only now that patients are so overwhelmingly demanding an integrative approach, and also as economics of conventional health care have gotten so difficult, that it's changing. But it is changing now. And I think that's a very good thing.

PHILLIPS: I have a number, of course of questions for you. But we did get one e-mail in. This from Theresa in Georgetown, Texas. How does the diet affect cancer? And how about the environment? And are more cancer deaths in developed countries -- and are there more cancer deaths in developed countries than the U.S.? I think that's what she's trying to say.

WEIL: Yes, that's a good question. I think some kinds of cancer are more prevalent in less developed countries for various reasons and some kinds are more prevalent in developed countries. I think there are strong environmental links to cancer, and there are significant dietary links to cancer. In terms of taking advantage of these, though, I think it's more in the realm of prevention than in treatment. Once cancer is diagnosed in the body, I don't think there is any dietary approach which, by itself, is going to help the body rid itself of cancer.

PHILLIPS: Now, on your Web site, you talk about a number of -- when we talk about diet -- a number of interesting things. Drinking green tea several times a day, Asian mushrooms, folic acid, Vitamin B- complex. Talk to me about some of the interesting treatments that you talk about.

WEIL: Sure, actually with lung cancer specifically, and I should mention that Dana Reeves contacted me for advice when she was first diagnosed and I told her the same thing I will tell you, which is there's nothing magical out there in the world of alternative medicine for lung cancer, but there are a few things worth paying attention to.

One is that vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, seems to have a significant protective effect against lung cancer and there are vitamin D receptors in the lungs. So I would advise anyone with lung cancer or at risk of lung cancer to take high doses of vitamin D-3, probably 1,000 to 2,000 milligrams a day with food.

There's also one of those Asian mushrooms that you mentioned that specifically has an effect in lung cancer. The Chinese name is zhuling. The Latin name is prolipius umbelatus (ph). This is a available here as a dietary supplements in capsules. The Chinese have seen good results with this in lung cancer, often in combination with conventional therapies.

PHILLIPS: Also, you talk about folic acid. I've heard about that with regard to women getting pregnant, but you say it can help reduce the risk of breast cancer. WEIL: It can, as can the antioxidant vitamins, beta carotene, selenium, vitamin C, vitamin E. I think all these taken in proper dosages have helped the body's defenses against cancer. You mentioned green tea, there's specific cancer fighting element in the cabbage family vegetables, especially in broccoli, broccoli sprouts.

There's intense investigation of many of the pigments that are in fruits and vegetables for their cancer protective effect. I would emphasize this is more in the realm of prevention, of lowering risks of cancer, rather than being used as treatments.

PHILLIPS: Whatever treatment you decide to approach your cancer with, the mind/body technique, having faith, the whole spiritual aspect of healing, you've talked a lot about. Can we touch on that.

WEIL: Sure, think it's a well researched area of integrated medicine. We have many cases in which you can see that attitude, correlates with survival, with quality of life. I think this is all important.

And one thing I always try to do with patients who have cancer is to introduce them to patients who have the same type of cancer who are doing well. I think that that can go a long way to neutralize a lot of the negative messages that cancer patients often get from the conventional medical world that their situation is not very hopeful.

PHILLIPS: Dr. Andrew Weil, teaching in Arizona, is joining us via phone, thanks for your time, doctor, appreciate it.

WEIL: Sure, bye-bye.

PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, a baseball legend, the underdog fans love to root for. The world also mourns the passing of Kirby Puckett. We'll remember the former Minnesota Twins star straight ahead on LIVE FROM.

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PHILLIPS: A lot of Minnesota fans here. One of the youngest ever elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, the second youngest to die. Former Minnesota Twins star Kirby Puckett died yesterday in Phoenix, a day after suffering a stroke.

He was forced to retire from the game that he love in 1996 when glaucoma took the sight from his right eye. He was elected to the Hall of Fame five years ago. Among his fellow baseball legends, he died at the age of 37. Kirby Puckett was 45.

Minnesota fans loved Kirby Puckett. Already, there's a makeshift memorial outside the Metrodome in Minneapolis where Puckett played and where he won the unofficial distinction in the minds of many -- minds and hearts of many people as the greatest Twin ever. Twins' GM Terry Ryan says Puckett's death is tough on everybody

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TERRY RYAN, MINNESOTA TWINS GEN. MGR.: He was a tremendous player, a Gold Glover, an all-star. He was a World Series hero. More importantly, he had a personality -- he treated everybody the same. He had tremendous charisma. He had a lot of energy. We named a street after him up there in Minnesota right by the Metrodome so you now how much we thought of him. He is going to be sorely missed in this organization.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: The baseball commissioner Bud Selig says, quote, I'm terribly saddened by the sudden passing of Kirby Puckett. He was a Hall of Famer in every sense of the term. Kirby was taken from us much too soon and too quickly.

Dealing with cancer. Our special coverage continues straight ahead on LIVE FROM. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta is ready to take some of your questions. He is going to join us live after the break. You can e-mail us at livefrom@cnn.com

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