After stage 4 melanoma diagnosis, treatment, William Shatner shares new outlook on life

Key takeaways:

• Actor William Shatner shared his melanoma story with attendees of the American Academy of Dermatology Annual Meeting.
• Shatner recalled “the care and love a doctor can give a patient in that moment.”

SAN DIEGO — Actor William Shatner still vividly recalls the moment he learned a simple lump under his right ear, initially dismissed, was in fact cancer, and how concern from a caring physician likely saved his life.

“I’m breezing along looking good and feeling good and I noticed a lump on the side of my right ear,” Shatner, most famous for his portrayal of Captain James T. Kirk in the Star Trek franchise, said during a keynote presentation at the American Academy of Dermatology Annual Meeting. “I went to my family doctor, who said the parotid gland was probably jammed up, and to just massage it and it will go away.”

One month later, Shatner received very different news after seeing a different physician.

“I went and had [the lump] taken out. It was melanoma, stage 4,” Shatner said. “I said, ‘Stage 4?’ And someone in the room said, ‘Sorry.’ I said, “What are you sorry about?’ It was like, ‘Better pack your things.’ That person who said ‘sorry,’ that was very sad, like you are going to die. And I was. They said if this [treatment] they used did not work, I had about 5 months.”

In a keynote address that was more fireside chat, Shatner, who spoke with AAD President Terrence A. Cronin Jr., MD, FAAD, discussed his stage 4 melanoma diagnosis and the moment a clinician treating him first said the lump in the back of his jaw was likely something more.

“I spent a month massaging my right ear, and the movie ‘Alien’ comes to mind, because I don’t think people who have never had cancer realize how quickly cancers grow,” Shatner said. “As I am massaging it, I am seeing this thing in the back of my jaw growing. So I went to another doctor, and he did what is so beautiful about being a doctor. He had artistic hands. He put them on my cheek and said, ‘You have to get this out.’ It was said with such kindness and with such gentility of touch on my jaw. I saw the care and love a doctor can give a patient in that moment.”

Shatner, also famous for being one of a handful of civilians to briefly travel into space, said his diagnosis led to much reflection on the doctor-patient relationship. He credited a successful immunotherapy regimen with saving his life. At age 93 years, he is now cancer-free, he said.

“I’m walking along the street with a little lump in my jaw, and someone says you are going to die in 5 months,” Shatner said. “I’m sure that all you doctors have said that and done that innumerable times, as sad as it is. It only has to happen once to the patient. It was quite an experience. I went through life and death cycles. The immunotherapy aspect of my treatment kind of knocks you out. You are fighting fatigue a lot. Yet, here I am, with a new movie, a new children’s album, a hit show, ‘Unexplained,’ and a documentary and innumerable other things. And I’m running as fast as I can, minus the lump in my right cheek.”

During the discussion, Cronin noted that Shatner’s prognosis likely would not have gone so well even a decade ago.

“Ten years ago, you would not be doing so well,” Cronin said. “Immunotherapy has become the standard of care for melanoma and that innovation has changed everything.”

Shatner, who shared his story with humor, asked clinicians to think about the experience of discussing bad news with a patient.

“What an experience for one human being, who is healthy, to turn to someone and say, ‘You’ve got 5 months, you better pack your bags,’” Shatner said. “What an experience to have between two people. Saying, ‘You are dying. You’re dying in 5 months.’ Is there a technique? Do you have a symposium on how to tell people they have 5 months?”

“Yes,” Cronin said, as the audience erupted in laughter.

“Son of a gun, where are those classes taking place?” Shatner said to more laughter.

Cronin, who agreed the conversations are difficult ones, said that work continues alongside the science to advance cancer care.

“It is a tough part of the job and I think every doctor struggles with how to do it in a sincere and sympathetic way,” Cronin said. “Thanks to the innovations taking place, we do not have to have those conversations as often.”