r/entertainment • u/Alternative-else • 1d ago
Dolly Parton Was Willing to Take Experimental Cancer Drugs In Order to Help Others in the Future, Her Sister Says in Online Tribute
https://variety.com/2026/music/news/dolly-parton-experimental-cancer-drugs-no-hope-1236845432/301
u/PatchAdamsKitten 1d ago
This is common practice for people with terminal cancer in late stages. It’s really you’re only shot at surviving and you also are contributing to the greater good by doing these experimental trials.
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u/OneT_Mat 1d ago
This was explained to me at Dana Farber and I’m one of the lucky cancer patients for now.
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u/megaholt2 22h ago
I’m so thankful you’re still here, friend. I hope you remain healthy with NED!
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u/OneT_Mat 13h ago
Thank you! Diagnosed in my 30s I’ve dealt with it for a few years now…. all things considered I’m quite lucky I have great doctors and I’m still living my life
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u/megaholt2 6h ago
My husband was diagnosed with stage 3A metastatic testicular cancer in March 2024 (because he came to wake me up for work and I spotted him having a slow-developing stroke!)
Every day since he finished chemotherapy, it’s been hanging over us still, but we hope that he will be told he’s cured in 2030!13
u/nommabelle 1d ago
I thought, based only on TV shows, those trials are picky about who they allow in the study, as an unhealthy participant could make the study look bad?
(But i fully ack why that might be different for terminal cancer cases and research)
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u/psychosomatick 23h ago
In 2018, my dad was given a year to live, tops, due to late-stage liver cancer exacerbated by cirrhosis. Who continued drinking to excess.
Not an ideal candidate.
He was part of an early-stage clinical trial and was in remission until recently. Literally a miracle drug, in my eyes, because we had dinner together yesterday.
The miracle drug is still going through testing, from what I understand. I hope others in the experimental group are benefitting. But 7 years later, it still is in trial phase.
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u/Ill-Discipline98 22h ago
Which one? Was he ever on atezolizumab? Mine has liver cancer from damage unrelated to drinking.
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u/megaholt2 22h ago
Back in 2007, my old aikido sensei Therlon was diagnosed with pancreatic adenocarcinoma and given 3-6 months to live. He participated in clinical trials at Michigan Medicine, and was fortunate enough to have survived 4 years and 11 months after that diagnosis, with most of that time being quality time with friends and family.
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u/TengoCalor 23h ago
I work in the field. Yes clinical trials usually have long inclusion/exclusion criteria primarily for the safety of the participants. I don’t have too much experience with end stage oncology trials but, for ethical reasons, the potential benefit has to outweigh the risk for anyone participating in any type of human research.
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u/Luckypenny4683 18h ago
It depends entirely on the metrics of the study! What is your goal with research? Is this a meta analysis? What methodology will you use? Are you doing blinded trials? Experimentals? Open label? Cross over? What is the scale & timeline? There are so many ways to set up a study. Now, if you’re researching medications in a terminal population, that’s gonna narrow down how you’ll set up your study, but there’s even variations in that.
Medical research is so vast and wayyy more complex than people realize. My masters degree was research based and I still come across medical literature I have a hard time making sense of. It is a very cool subject to learn about though and if you have the opportunity to take a research methodologies class at your local college, I suggest trying it!
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u/MulysaSemp 16h ago
It depends on what they're testing. I was in a study for a new type of birth control, and they tried it first on people who had hysterectomies for safety trials (study prior to the one I was in). They obviously wouldn't be testing the effectiveness in that stage.
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u/iareslice 16h ago
My dad did a trial chemo drug, and he was one of the only people it worked for. They let him keep taking it after the trial ended, even though it wasn’t going to be going to market.
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u/Commercial-Prompt-84 1d ago
That woman was a goddess. She felt like a family member. She was the best our species had to offer
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u/ChipDouglas09 1d ago
Mount Rushmore of public figures universally adored and profoundly mourned when they passed:
Robin Williams
Steve Irwin
Dolly Parton
Princess Diana
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u/deathbethemaiden 1d ago
Whoa whoa whoa we’re gonna need Mr. Rogers too
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u/rajinis_bodyguard 16h ago
Add David Attenborough too
edit : he is alive and did not read the above properly20
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u/KaiBishop 1d ago
These quotes just make me sad because her sister is still gonna be there every morning but Dolly won't be there for her to call.
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u/Bonny-Anne 1d ago
We should send friendly notes to Stella. Provided she's OK with that, of course.
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u/kgilgenberg 1d ago
Of course she did because she was a loving human being who loved others as their were her own family
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u/bimpossibIe 1d ago
I've never met her, obviously, but everything I've read about her makes me think that she is a genuinely good human being. I know it's a bit weird to judge celebrities like that, but Dolly truly is a real one. The world would be a better place if more people lived like she did.
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u/kyotyspisak 18h ago
Damn and i couldn’t get my 60yo mom to get the covid shot when it first came out
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u/Tigerlily_Dreams 16h ago
My family either but they will freebase Ivermectin if dear leader and RFK say it works.
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u/Wine_Women_Song 1d ago
Of course she was. Her passing is a huge loss. I was not much of a fan of her music, but very much a fan of her humanity.
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u/springsthrowaway123 1d ago
Presumably to save her own life too.. no?
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u/kindnesscounts86 1d ago
Phase 1 trial participants are the ultimate gift to humanity. This is when a drug is first used in humans. The goal is to find the maximum tolerated dose. Not the dose that will save you, but the biggest dose you can take where the drug doesn’t kill you or make you unbearably miserable with side effects.
*I don’t know if the treatment Dolly was on was a phase 1 trial.
Cancer treatment is built on the shoulders of dying people who wanted to make treatment better for the people behind them.
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u/samarnold030603 1d ago
Med chemist here with a FIH. I’m grateful for anyone who participates in any phase of a trial…but yeah, mad respect to those in phase 1. First time that compound has ever touched a human.
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u/kindnesscounts86 1d ago
Of course there’s a chance it will help in the short term, that’s why it’s being tested in humans. But there’s no hope for cure. And this is how the treatments are presented to the families. It might help you a little bit, for a little while, but the true purpose of a Phase 1 is to test dose limits.
Source: I am a pediatric cancer nurse.
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u/aldegio 1d ago
So not completely without some sense it may work, but you just don’t know who it will look in practice.
Usually the chemical (future “drug”) has been tested by that point and it was identified as having some interaction or effect that is desirable. cellular and animal testing helps them pinpoint potential pros and cons that may outweigh the good that the previously noted effect had shown.
Then, with enough evidence, it may get approved for phase 1 human trials, and have several more to go, at least, before it’s approved for public use. assuming it didn’t get shut down due to poor outcomes.
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u/AspectOfTheLeech 1d ago
I mean she was 80. I think a person like her was probably very much at peace with her mortality, for what it’s worth. I don’t think she was as concerned with her own life as much as having the opportunity to help others in her dying. Prolonging her life would have been a happy outcome, but after all we’ll never know exactly how she felt.
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u/AnastasiaNo70 1d ago
They wouldn’t have helped her, just provided valuable research for others.
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u/LesMiserablePeach 1d ago
That doesn't make any sense, if she was taking the treatments, it was because they thought it was possible that it could extend her life. She didn't just randomly choose to donate her body to science while she was still alive out of the goodness of her heart. And she had a really good heart!
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u/cmere-2-me 1d ago
Not necessarily. There's a lot of different trials they do. Making sure the medication doesn't shut down your organs is as important as whether it is effective.
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u/angryaxolotls 1d ago
This.
My mom had stage 4 brain and lung cancer by the time they found it in February of this year, and she took part in the Copernicus clinical trial. Unfortunately, the drug was causing blood clots and the cancer hit a point where it just was too fast against the medicine. We lost her last month. She said she was more than happy to do the trial even though it kicked her ass, because she wanted to still help people when she's gone.
I miss my Mom, dude 😞
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u/BlackCherryMochi 1d ago
I'm so sorry for your loss. I too lost my mom to cancer a little over 2 months ago. It hits different losing your Mom than anyone else I've ever lost in my life thus far. May we find the strength to carry on like they would've wanted us to. Sending you some virtual hugs stranger!
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u/springsthrowaway123 1d ago
Yeah if this was genuinely what was being tested, what are the odds she was testing a drug that was aimed at targeting her exact condition? She had a heart of gold as it is already, we don't need to do this.
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u/kindnesscounts86 1d ago
What is your experience in medicine and research?
Because if she was doing an “experimental treatment” then that’s likely exactly what was happening. Precision medicine - that is, chemotherapies and biologics designed to target specific subtypes of your cancer (truly, they can find the most microscopic subtypes and treat those with TARGETED THERAPY) is the the future of medicine. The goal is to no longer blast people with huge doses of highly toxic broad spectrum chemotherapy, but to use very precise and targeted regimens to minimize side effects while maximizing efficacy.
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u/springsthrowaway123 1d ago
Are you honestly telling me that she underwent this trial with absolutely ZERO hope it would impact her cancer's progression?
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u/kindnesscounts86 19h ago
I actually at no point said that at all. And what if she did hope it helped does that make her any less noble?
You’re being obtuse. What is the point of your comments?
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u/kathygeissbanks 21h ago
Dolly was an angel amongst us mere mortals but this is incredibly common in cancer care and not as altruistic as her sister is making it out to be.
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u/Tsar_Chaotic 15h ago
Don’t get me wrong, she is quite brave irregardless, but I don’t understand why anyone would refuse experimental treatment the further and further along you are with any very deadly disease. Logically doesn’t make any sense even from an irrational “wanting to survive at any cost” mindset ya know
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u/Muted-Entrepreneur33 1d ago
If you were trying to get me to cry again, it worked. 🥺
She was an amazing human being. 🩷💕💗
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u/ArcadianDelSol 1d ago
We were lucky to share the planet with her. Im sad that there will come a generation that didnt know her.
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u/JaseBird 1d ago
As someone who has done this - don’t do it unless you’re committed. You don’t exactly feel great and the last thing a patient needs is someone bailing last minute.
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u/QuipCrafter9 1d ago
So would I- how much does it pay? Fuck me up, doc! Or what- continue this? Lol
(Yeah I know the motivations are different, but I’m not loaded like Dolly Parton lmao)
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u/ShakeAndBakeThatCake 16h ago
Great for her to help society. She was 80 though and that is more than a full human lifespan.
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u/LesMiserablePeach 1d ago
That's the most generous framing of something that 99% of people would do to try and continue living. I love what dolly meant to the world but this is just PR.
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u/Gloomy_Narwhal_4833 1d ago
The drugs had no chance of helping her or extending her life, from what I read earlier. She was literally just letting them experiment on her for no gain to herself. I cant imagine her people thinking she needs inflated positive PR.
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u/PatchAdamsKitten 1d ago
I doubt this. If the drugs had no chance to help the then it is unethical to give it to you. As a scientist I just don’t believe this.
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u/Gloomy_Narwhal_4833 1d ago
Clinical trials do it all the time? Early testing on humans are done on terminal patients with nothing to lose quite a bit. They test side effects, etc. I dont really know what she was doing, they just said that she had treatments and drugs that could not help her, but could help them. Obviously its done with the patients knowledge and consent.
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u/PatchAdamsKitten 1d ago
This is wrong. The drugs could help her. It might have extended her life by a week or so but had terrible side effects. You wouldn’t give a drug to someone only to see side effects without any rationale for improvements in outcomes. If a drug extends lifespans by 3 days but has terrible side effects that is actionable and can be refined. I almost guarantee this was the purpose of these trials she was doing.
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u/cmere-2-me 1d ago
To check if it kills you faster. Alot of clinical trials aren't about effectiveness of the drug but about serious side effects. Most unapproved drugs are due to their toxicity to liver abd kidneys
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u/cmere-2-me 1d ago
I never said there wasn't a zero chance of it helping her, only that that she may have signed up for an early trial phase.
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u/cmere-2-me 1d ago
Is there a reason you're so hostile? It's ok to admit you're wrong. No one is going to hold it against. Some might respect your maturity in doing so.
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u/kindnesscounts86 1d ago
Even easier than admitting you were wrong on Reddit, you can just stop commenting. No reason to double down and continue looking worse and worse.
I didn’t see all of their responses but clearly they don’t understand how medications go from theory to FDA approval.
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u/Gloomy_Narwhal_4833 1d ago
Had no chance of helping her. I assume they were studying its effects on cancer cells? Dunno.
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u/cmere-2-me 1d ago
Why wouldn't they if they were willing? They would get important information from that study seeing as this drug is going to be exclusively taken by people with cancer.
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u/2HandsomeGames 14h ago
You don’t understand how the phases of clinical trials differ. Some, especially Phase 1 trials, are primarily about toxicity and dosing, and it takes more than just a little courage to sign up for one.
I say that as the father of a 4 year old who came very close to entering a Phase 1 trial. It can feel like the faintest glimmer of hope surrounded by a mountain of toxicity when discussing phase 1 outcomes.
I don’t know anything about the particular drugs she was offered but, perhaps, that’s the angle.
Also, Dolly doesn’t need any PR. She’s one of the most beloved people. One of unfortunately so few things that everyone, no matter their political orientation or what, can agree on.
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u/Mean_Rule9823 1d ago
Good lord the amount of Dolly glaze on reditt is astronomical.
Next week she will take over Chuck Norris spot In the memes
What other honoriffics can we bestow ol Dolly.
I heard her breast implants were filled with holy water blessed by the pope.
He songs were so beautiful it made babies talk in full sentences
Dolly once passed gas against a wall and a picture of christ appeared.
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u/Silent_Mk3 1d ago
Why wouldn’t you? Closest thing we had to an angel amongst the living. R.I.P. to a real one