Duran Duran’s Andy Taylor Says New Cancer Drug Has Given Him Five More Years
Duran Duran’s Andy Taylor says he expects to live for another “five years” thanks to a new medication he’s using to treat his prostate cancer.
In an interview with BBC Breakfast, Taylor said a doctor reached out to him about the new treatment option after he revealed he was fighting stage four cancer last year (he’d been diagnosed several years prior). Taylor described the drug, Lutetium-177, as a “nuclear medicine” designed to specifically target cancer cells.
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“It can’t see healthy cells,” said Taylor, who started treatment about six weeks ago. “It kills stage four cancer in your bones. And so what it’s effectively done is extend my life for five years.”
Taylor revealed his cancer diagnosis via a letter his Duran Duran bandmates read during the group’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. As Taylor explained in the new interview, he was “massively disappointed” to miss the ceremony, which he called the “biggest night of my life.” But his condition was so bad that he “couldn’t really stand up and play.”
But Taylor said the new treatment has changed things significantly. Before he could actually start taking Lutetium-177, he had to get in “very, very good health,” prompting him to overhaul his lifestyle. After the first round of treatment, he was feeling so much better he asked his doctors, “If I’m OK, and you guys say I’m OK and do your blood tests, is it OK to start work again? Light work and get out?”
Taylor added: “I don’t want to be a patient stuck here. I want to be a working patient, a little beacon of hope, because this stuff — cancer — just drags you and your family down in the darkness.”
Taylor credited the treatment with allowing him to finish what will be his first solo album in 30 years, Man’s a Wolf to Man, which is set to arrive in September. And while Taylor still has not been able to join Duran Duran on tour, it was revealed earlier this year that he has been contributing to the group’s new album, which is set to arrive later this year. In the meantime, Duran Duran plan to show their support for Taylor with a special benefit concert in his honor at the Guild Theatre in Menlo Park, California, on Aug. 19.
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