When Merv Griffin died on August 12, his family said on his website :

Griffin, who turned 82 on July 6th, was recently diagnosed during a routine examination with a recurrence of the prostate cancer that he had overcome more than a decade ago. Its aggressive progression to other organs was unexpected and immediate, according to his doctors at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

The notion of a sudden fatal resurgence may mislead other men who are fighting prostate cancer.This description of Griffin as “recently diagnosed” during a “routine examination” with a recurrence of a cancer “overcome” a decade ago surprised some prostate cancer patients and alarmed others. It really doesn’t fit with the typical pattern of prostate cancer recurrence and progression. It’s not how most patients who suffer recurrence learn about it.

The statement by the Cedars-Sinai doctors may have been intended to preserve Griffin’s privacy and to assure family members that nothing more could have been done. More detail came from The National Enquirer, which reported that Griffin’s prostate cancer had spread to his bones, bladder, back and lungs. A catheter was put into his bladder to ease urination; blood was drained from his lungs.

A spokeswoman for The Griffin Group replied to a patient’s query: “1996. treated by radiation. brief episode in 1999. Reappeared as small spots on bone 2 months ago, and spread rapidly
and aggressively, and there was some chemo. . . . Merv had frequent check-ups and always came away with a clean bill of health until the day he didn’t.”

Why bury the fact that he knew years ago that his cancer had come back? “Always a clean bill of health” does not fit with what Merv’s son Tony Griffin told Larry King Live on August 23.

Griffin was treated with radiation in 1996. According to Tony, he knew his prostate cancer had come back 4 or 5 years before he died. He received follow up treatment for recurrent prostate cancer from a specialist at Cedars-Sinai. Merv Griffin made none of this public at the time. In fact, he did not tell his son what was really happening until entering hospital about 6 weeks before he died.

In early July this year, Merv’s assistant called in Merv’s son for what they both perceived as a breathing problem related to smoking. Merv was very ill and needed day and night assistance to get from couch to bed to bathroom. Merv was in pain, which grew worse. He entered Cedars- Sinai Medical Center. There he told his son that the prostate cancer had progressed to his bones. He died 33 days later after 5 days in the ICU.

Here’s what Tony Griffin told Larry King, August 13:

The end seems to be a little bit more longer than most people know. He got sick six to seven weeks prior to him dying…. And sick I mean he — his assistant, Ronnie Ward, called me and said, “Come on over here. You need to see your dad. He’s really wheezing.”

I go, “What is he smoking?”

He goes, “Oh, yes, he’s smoking.”

I said, “Oh, Ronnie, get those cigarettes from him.”

He goes, “I can’t, I can’t.”

So I come over and he was having trouble moving from the couch to the bathroom to the bedroom. And we knew something was wrong and he didn’t want any of us to stay. He wanted someone staying there at night.

So Ronnie and I started switching off nights and taking care of him and switching off days. We didn’t leave him.

And then he was having pain here. And so we said, well, jeez, dad, you’ve got to go to the hospital. And I was at home and my cousin Mike called me and said, hey, he just went to the hospital because he went in to see about the pain. It was right before July 4th.

So it was on July 3rd. So he went in the hospital. So I said, “Dad, what are you doing here? What’s going on?”

And he finally told me he — his prostate cancer had metastasized to his bones.

KING: Now, he told everyone he had beaten prostate cancer.

T. GRIFFIN: Yes, I know.

KING: He hadn’t?

T. GRIFFIN: No.

KING: He didn’t at the time?

T. GRIFFIN: How do you — you know, how do you quantify it? I don’t know. He — I guess about three or four years ago, he had not told any of us and went to this specialist, Dr. David Agus and who is the chief guy at Cedars, runs the cancer lab. And I guess they were treating it. I’m not sure. I’m not clear.

KING: Did he know he was dying?

T. GRIFFIN: The last 33 days in the hospital he kept asking me every day if he was dying. So he — he kind of knew. I mean it was getting worse and worse so…. “

(from CNN transcript, August 13)

About one third of men who are treated for prostate cancer do experience recurrence. And close to 30 thousand of these men a year die of metastatic prostate cancer, i.e. of prostate cancer progressed to other organs, typically to bone and commonly also to liver, lungs, and/or brain.

Usually, men whose prostate can comes back, either immediately or years after initial therapy with surgery and/or radiation and or/androgen blockade, are likely to know about this, from regular follow-up tests, months or years before the disease reaches final, exponentially metastatic stages. Recurrent prostate cancer is usually treated with various types and levels of hormonal manipulation and with chemotherapy. Newer treatments, some already approved and some in clinical trials, include monoclonal antibodies and immunotherapies.