BS: Peter Jennings Has Lung Cancer

Subject: BS: Peter Jennings Has Lung Cancer
From: Ebbie
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 12:17 PM

ABC's news anchor, Peter Jennings, has just informed the network of his diagnosis. I don't watch ABC much - I have only over-the-air TV and that channel is often blurry- but I watched last Friday and I noticed that his voice was ragged and that he often cleared his throat. I figured he had the same bronchial stuff so many of us have recently had. I feel bad about this (Forget about "Celebrity Worship". This doesn't come close.); Jennings is an interesting man. And yes, he's from Canada...

"Peter Jennings, the chief ABC News anchorman for more than 20 years, has been diagnosed with lung cancer and will begin outpatient treatment next week, the network said Tuesday.

"Jennings, 66, has been feeling ill for the past several months and was replaced Saturday on coverage of the pope's death by anchor Charles Woodruff. He last anchored "World News Tonight" on Friday.

"Jennings informed ABC News staff of the diagnosis Tuesday morning and said he will anchor the broadcast when he feels up to it over the next few months as he begins chemotherapy.

"There will be good days and bad, which means some days I may be cranky and some days really cranky," he told ABC News employees in an e-mail."

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Subject: RE: BS: Peter Jennings Has Lung Cancer
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 12:28 PM

Well, I do believe this does have to do with celebrity worship, but he has my sympathy anyway. My mother just died from lung cancer, and I know the road he has ahead of him. I'm surpised at the announcement that he will be receiving chemo, though. It's well established that chemo doesn't work with lung cancer.

I think it is sad he doesn't just take a leave of absence, and spend time with loved ones, but we all make our choices.

Subject: RE: BS: Peter Jennings Has Lung Cancer
From: Ebbie
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 12:36 PM

Guest, what you are implying, imo, is that ANY person whom we don't know personally should not have an impact on our lives and therefore should not be missed. There are many, many people in this world- and many long since gone - whom I will never meet but who have had and will continue to have a profound effect on me.

Subject: RE: BS: Peter Jennings Has Lung Cancer
From: Peace
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 12:39 PM

GUEST:

I too have had people leave my life--they died from various cancers--and I hope you will accept my condolences. It is horrible to watch and very difficult to deal with.

Bruce M

Subject: RE: BS: Peter Jennings Has Lung Cancer
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 12:43 PM

Guest, get off the "celebrity worship" jag, will you? You have an odd bee in your bonnet. Thoughtful appreciation of a public figure isn't a bad thing.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Peter Jennings Has Lung Cancer
From: open mike
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 12:44 PM

on what is the comment based:
it is a well known fact that chemo is ineffective for lung cancer?

I have never heard of this.

sources??

Subject: RE: BS: Peter Jennings Has Lung Cancer
From: Ebbie
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 12:48 PM

I have never heard that 'fact' either, but then I haven't checked. I do know that they say that lung cancer frequently is so advanced by the time it is discovered that treatment is often futile. OTOH, I have heard of people who have survived it.

Subject: RE: BS: Peter Jennings Has Lung Cancer
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 12:49 PM

PS--sorry though, Guest, about the loss of a loved one to cancer. It's a hard death. My aunt (who smoked all her life) died from emphysema. She sounded awful for years and was barely ambulatory. This was directly related to smoking. Many of my mother's ailments were no doubt smoking-related, though the breast cancer that killed her may or may not have been related.

Lung cancer treatment search at Google.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Peter Jennings Has Lung Cancer
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 01:04 PM

Peter Jennings isn't dead yet, and by all appearances, he doesn't want to be considered that way. So the Reuters announcement seems appropriate under the circumstances.

Now then, I was just trying to link to an ABC story at Google News, announcing Jennings had cancer. It read like his obituary, and I'm guessing it probably was, because it has now been pulled offline, and the link won't work.

This is the ABC announcement now.

Look, I admire Peter Jennings as a journalist, and I am sad to hear he has lung cancer. He and his family have my sympathy. But I don't know Peter Jennings and his family, or any of his colleagues, so it would be phony for me to say I am "deeply saddened" or some such thing, because I'm not. Reading the news gave me a moment's pause, and a pang for him. But it isn't cause for me to go on about it, because I don't know him personally.

As to lung cancer treatment and chemotherapy. The announcement that he will be receiving chemo means he has small cell lung cancer which is inoperable. Chemotherapy is still offered by some pulmonary specialists and oncologists, but fewer and fewer all the time. It is usually offered with the caveat that it won't cure the patient, but it may give them more time (though the caveat comes with the statement that there is no medical evidence that chemotherapy does extend the life of lung cancer patients with small cell lung cancer at all). It is usually offered to patients who insist that some form of treatment be offered. Which usually means they and/or their family haven't accepted their diagnosis.

Radiation therapy is usually offered to provide some pain relief as the tumor(s) grow larger. The national five-year survival rate after diagnosis of Lung Cancer is 11-14%.

Subject: RE: BS: Peter Jennings Has Lung Cancer
From: Wesley S
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 01:09 PM

And Richard - the guitar player in our group - is one of the lucky 11 to 14 %.

Subject: RE: BS: Peter Jennings Has Lung Cancer
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 01:14 PM

How old was he when he was diagnosed Wesley?

Subject: RE: BS: Peter Jennings Has Lung Cancer
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 01:15 PM

And thank you to those who have extended condolences about the recent death of my mother.

Subject: RE: BS: Peter Jennings Has Lung Cancer
From: kendall
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 01:44 PM

This is too bad. I'm not into celebrity worship, but this guy is a well spoken very professional news reporter. Canada can be proud of him. (Unlike Shatner)

Subject: RE: BS: Peter Jennings Has Lung Cancer
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 02:04 PM

I agree kendall. If the mainstream media had more journalists with the integrity of Jennings, we wouldn't be victims of the propaganda trade, like we are now.

Subject: RE: BS: Peter Jennings Has Lung Cancer
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 02:22 PM

And for those of you who think I'm being too negative about all this, here is some new research that was brought to my family's attention when my mother was diagnosed with untreatable small cell lung cancer in June 2003. She lasted until January of this year--a long time for someone with the stage of cancer, her age, and her complicating medical conditions.

Subject: RE: BS: Peter Jennings Has Lung Cancer
From: GUEST,Mrr
Date: 06 Apr 05 - 08:36 AM

That bites, but it also explains, maybe, why he could hardly talk about the death of the Pope. I had thought it odd that he would be so broken up about it, but if he's having lung trouble, that would explain it.
He's my favorite news anchor.

Subject: RE: BS: Peter Jennings Has Lung Cancer
From: Once Famous
Date: 06 Apr 05 - 03:45 PM

How much did he smoke?

Subject: RE: BS: Peter Jennings Has Lung Cancer
From: GUEST, Ebbie
Date: 06 Apr 05 - 03:59 PM

Today's paper said that he quit smoking 20 years ago but started again briefly after September 11, 01. Have no idea why that tragedy caused him to smoke again, although I know from experience that smokers have rationales all their own.

Subject: RE: BS: Peter Jennings Has Lung Cancer
From: pdq
Date: 06 Apr 05 - 05:06 PM

Picture this time next year. Peter Jennings is semi-comatose, lying in a hospice bed in Florida.

The judge orders his feeding tube be removed.

The doctor asks "Which end - the one in his arm or the one in DNC Headquarters?

Subject: RE: BS: Peter Jennings Has Lung Cancer
From: Ebbie
Date: 06 Apr 05 - 06:03 PM

You haven't listened to him much, have you, pdq?

Subject: RE: BS: Peter Jennings Has Lung Cancer
From: Sorcha
Date: 06 Apr 05 - 06:29 PM

Well, everybody concerned from family GP to oncologist told my mom that chemo does NOT have much effect on lung cancer but that was 6 years ago.

Subject: RE: BS: Peter Jennings Has Lung Cancer
From: Pete Jennings
Date: 07 Apr 05 - 07:47 AM

This is the scariest thread name I ever read.

We obviously don't see much of him on UK tv, but I've had a few jokes cracked by Americans at my/his expense, especially by immigration officers!

Good luck to him.

Pete