This list of notable brain tumor patients includes people who made significant contributions to their chosen field and who had a primary or metastatic brain tumor at some point in their lives, as confirmed by public information. Tumor type and survival duration are listed where the information is known. Blank spaces in these columns appear where precise information has not been released to the public. Medicine does not designate most long term survivors as cured.
To put survival periods in context, a Norwegian hospital reviewed 1,218 patient records from 1960 - 1994 and reported median survival times for several tumor types over this 24 year period as listed in the table below. [1] According to the United States National Cancer Institute, an estimated 18,500 new cases and 12,760 deaths occurred nationwide in 2005. These high overall mortality rates are due to the prevalence of aggressive types such as glioblastoma multiforme. Nearly 14% of new brain tumor diagnoses occur in persons under 20 years of age. [2]
Tumor type | Median survival |
---|---|
Glioblastoma multiforme | 12 months |
Anaplastic astrocytoma | 25 months |
Astrocytoma (low grade) | 95 months |
Oligodendroglioma | 74 months |
Mixed glioma | 65 months |
Medulloblastoma | 109 months |
Brain stem tumors | 9 months |
Pineal region tumors | 60 months |
Acting
Name | Life | Comments | Diagnosis | Survival | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nell Carter | (1948 - 2003) | Stage and television actor who earned a Tony Award and an Emmy Award, best remembered for her television role in Gimme a Break. | [3] | ||
Sandy Duncan | (1946 - present) | Tony Award nominated Broadway actor, television star. | 30+ years | [4] | |
Susan Hayward | (1914 - 1975) | Academy Award winning film actor. | 2 years | [5] | |
Arthur Kennedy | (1914 - 1990) | Stage and film actor, Tony Award winner. | [6] | ||
Joseph Maher | (1933 - 1998) | Character actor. | [7] | ||
Greg Morris | (1933 - 1996) | Television actor, best remembered for the Mission Impossible series. | [8] | ||
Pat Paulsen | (1927 - 1997) | Comedian, starred in the Smothers Brothers. | [9] | ||
Slim Pickens | (1919 - 1983) | Rodeo clown turned film actor, best remembered for Dr. Strangelove. | [10] | ||
Zachary Scott | (1914 - 1965) | Film villain. | [11] | ||
Werner Stocker | (1955 - 1993) | Featured role in television's Highlander series. | [12] | ||
Elizabeth Taylor | (1932 - present) | Academy Award winning actor, star of numerous films. | meningioma | 1997 to present | [13] |
Business
Name | Life | Comments | Diagnosis | Survival | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
James Batten | (1936? - 1995) | Chief Executive Officer of Knight-Ridder publishing. | 1 year | [14] | |
Reginald Lewis | (1942 - 1993) | Chief Executive Officer of TLC Beatrice International Holdings Inc, the first African-American run company to have over $1 billion in annual sales. | [15] | ||
Gerry Pencer | (19?? - 1998) | Chief executive officer of Cott Beverages. Mr. Pencer and his family became significant philanthopists of brain tumor research and medicine. | glioblastoma multiforme | 8 months | [16] |
Dawn Steel | (1946 - 1997) | First female top executive of a major Hollywood studio. | 20 months | [17] |
Miscellaneous
Name | Life | Comments | Diagnosis | Survival | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Johnnie Cochran | (1937 - 2005) | Prominent defense attorney. | 1 year | [18] | |
Anatoli Levchenko | (1941 - 1988) | Research cosmonaut. | [19] | ||
Marshall McLuhan | (1911 - 1980) | Communications theorist and educator. | 11 years | [20] | |
Judd Rose | (1955 - 2000) | Emmy Award winning television news reporter, co-anchor of CNN Newsstand. | [21] | ||
Deke Slayton | (1924 - 1993) | One of the original seven United States astronauts. | [22] |
Music
Name | Life | Comments | Diagnosis | Survival | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Luther Allison | (1939 - 1997) | Blues guitarist. | metastatic tumor | less than 1 year | [23] |
George Gershwin | (1898 - 1937) | Jazz and classical music composer, co-wrote many stage musicals and film scores. | glioblastoma multiforme | 1 month | [24] |
William Finn | (1952 - present) | Tony Award winning Broadway songwriter. Finn wrote the show A New Brain about his experiences. | 1992 - present | [25] | |
George Harrison | (1943 - 2001) | Lead guitarist of the Beatles. | metastatic tumor | [26] | |
Otto Klemperer | (1885 - 1973) | Conductor. | 40 years | [27] | |
Bob Marley | (1945 - 1981) | Reggae legend. | metastatic tumor | [28] | |
Johnny Mercer | (1909 - 1976) | Songwriter and lyricist. | [29] | ||
Ethel Merman | (1908 - 1984) | Singer, Broadway performer. | 10 months | [30] | |
Wayne Osmond | (1951 - present) | Singer, second oldest of the Osmond brothers. | 1994 - present | [31] | |
Junior Parker | (1932 - 1971) | Blues singer. | [32] | ||
Tammi Terrell | (1945 - 1970) | Singer, duettist with Marvin Gaye on Ain't No Mountain High Enough. | 2 years | [33] |
Politics and government
Name | Life | Comments | Diagnosis | Survival | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lee Atwater | (1951 - 1991) | Chairman of the United States Republican National Committee. | glioblastoma multiforme | 1 year | [34] |
William Casey | (1913 - 1987) | Director of the Central Intelligence Agency | 5 months | [35] | |
David Hermelin | (1936 - 2000) | United States ambassador to Norway. | 1 year | [36] | |
Mo Mowlam | (1949 - 2005) | Britain's Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. | 7 years | [37] | |
Arlen Specter | (1930 - present) | United States senator from Pennsylvania. | 1993 - present | [38] | |
Mike Synar | (1950 - 1996) | United States congressional representative from Oklahoma. | [39]] | ||
Frank Tejeda | (1946 - 1997) | United States congressional representative from Texas. | 1 year | [40] |
Science
Name | Life | Comments | Diagnosis | Survival | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Thor Heyerdahl | (1914 - 2002) | Marine biologist famous for the Kon-Tiki expedition and other journeys that reproduced ancient technology and demonstrated the feasibility of ancient sea migrations. | under 1 year | [41] |
Sports
Name | Life | Comments | Diagnosis | Survival | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lyle Alzado | (1949 - 1992) | NFL football player. Made public statements attributing his tumor to anabolic steriods, a claim not supported by medical research. | CNS lymphoma | [42] | |
Lance Armstrong | (1971 - present) | Cycling champion who won the Tour de France seven consecutive times after diagnosis and treatment. | metastatic tumor | 1996 - present | [43] |
Dan Duva | Boxing promoter behind over 100 world championship bouts. | primary brain tumor | [44] | ||
Josh Gibson | (1911 - 1947) | Negro League baseball player, famous home run hitter with the highest career batting average in league history. | 4 years | [45] | |
Tim Gullikson | (1951 - 1996) | Champion doubles tennis player and coach of Pete Sampras. | [46] | ||
Dick Howser | (1936 - 1987) | Major League Baseball shortstop and manager. | 1 year | [47] | |
Eric Liddell | (1902 - 1945) | Olympic gold medalist in track, portrayed in the film Chariots of Fire. | [48] | ||
Frank Edward "Tug" McGraw | (1944 - 2004) | Major league baseball pitcher. | 9 months | [49] | |
Kim Perrot | (1967 - 1999) | Basketball player, WNBA Houston Comets, league most valuable player. | [50] | ||
Dan Quisenberry | (1953 - 1998) | Major league baseball player. | [51] | ||
Pete Rozelle | (1926 - 1996) | NFL commissioner. | [52] | ||
Wilma Rudolph | (1940 - 1994) | Olympic gold medalist in track. | [53] | ||
Nick Sanborn | (1935 - 1999) | Automobile racer. | [54] | ||
Fritz Von Erich | (1929 - 1997) | Wrestler and wrestling promoter. | [55] |
Visual arts
Name | Life | Comments | Diagnosis | Survival | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Eva Hesse | (1936 - 1970) | Abstract sculptor. | [56] | ||
Bob Parent | (1923 - 1987) | Jazz photographer whose works appeared in Life and Downbeat. | [57] | ||
Ferdinand Preiss | (1882 - 1943) | Art deco sculptor who specialized in ivory and bronze. | [58] | ||
Eero Saarinen | (1910 - 1961) | Architect best known for the gateway arch in St. Louis, Missouri. | [59] | ||
Francois Truffaut | (1932 - 1984) | Film director famous for The 400 Blows. | [60] |
Writing
Name | Life | Comments | Diagnosis | Survival | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Anthony Burgess | (1917 - 1993) | Author of A Clockwork Orange. | metastatic tumor | [61] | |
Raymond Carver | (1938 - 1988) | Short story writer and poet. | metastatic tumor | [62] | |
Hugh Cook | (1956 - ) | Author of fantasy series Chronicles of an Age of Darkness. | [63] | ||
Terence McKenna | (1946 - 2000) | Writer and counterculture figure. | glioblastoma multiforme | under 1 year | [64] |
Charles Sheffield | (1935 - 2002) | Mathematician, physicist and science fiction writer. | three months | [65] | |
Mary Shelley | (1797 - 1851) | Author of Frankenstein, wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley. | [66] | ||
Gene Siskel | (1946 - 1999) | Film critic for the Chicago Tribune, television partner of Roger Ebert. | under 1 year | [67] |
External links
- Braintumor.org
- American Brain Tumor Association
- The Brain Tumor Society
- Al Musella Foundation
- The Childhood Brain Tumor Foundation