Kilmer Remembers His Batman Glory Days
- In a recent Instagram video, actor and throat cancer survivor Val Kilmer put on his famous Batman mask.
- Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014.
- Keeping a playful and positive attitude through cancer can help make the process easier.
View this post on Instagram
Oscar-winning Aussie Nicole Kidman starred opposite Kilmer as psychologist Dr. Chase Meridian in the 1995 hit, which also featured Jim Carrey.
Kilmer recently announced that a personal documentary of his illustrious life and career, Val, will finally be released later this year.
"It is unimaginable that this movie actually could've ever come to light without the partnership of my dear friends, Leo and Ting, and my producing partners," Kilmer said in May. "Tireless hours of editing and endless emotions with each new cut! I couldn't be more proud to share this with the world!"
Kilmer's Cancer Battle
Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 and went public with his illness in 2017. Kilmer had a tracheotomy, and he also underwent chemotherapy to treat his disease. The two main causes of throat cancer are smoking and excessive drinking, but throat cancer can also be caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV).
Dr. Ted Teknos says in a previous interview, "When I first started training and practicing head and neck surgery, we saw this group of patients that were becoming increasingly more frequent, who were those patients who never smoked, were not drinkers, and were developing head and neck cancer. And in the beginning part of my career in the early '90s and mid-90s, those were rare patients, but then, year by year, those numbers increased dramatically."
Related: MLB Umpiring Legend and Throat Cancer Survivor Joe West Breaks Baseball's Umpiring Record
"What we know now, through science, is going back and looking, decade by decade, the rates of HPV-related head and neck cancer have increased exponentially," says Dr. Teknos. "If you look at the percentage of patients who developed throat cancer, really, cancer of the tonsils and the base of the tongue, in the '80s compared to the 2010s, if you will, the rate of HPV-related head and neck cancers has gone up by 300%. So there is no myth. HPV causes throat cancer, and it's a sexually transmitted disease."
Rocker Eddie Van Halen, 64, Says He Got Throat Cancer From Putting Metal Guitar Pick in His Mouth
Being Playful After Surviving Cancer
We love Kilmer’s playful attitude, like the one he shares with the world in his Batman mask video. Keeping a light, positive, and optimistic attitude through cancer can help make the process easier.
Cedars-Sinai colorectal surgeon, Dr. Zuri Murrell, says in an earlier interview, "My patients who thrive, even with stage 4 cancer, from the time that they, about a month after they're diagnosed, I kind of am pretty good at seeing who is going to be OK."
"Now doesn't that mean I'm good at saying that the cancer won't grow," says Dr. Murrell. "But I'm pretty good at telling what kind of patient are going to still have this attitude and probably going to live the longest, even with bad, bad disease. And those are patients who, they have gratitude in life."
Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.
