chicot60
05-13-2011, 11:37 AM
By Maria Puente and Liz Szabo, USA TODAY
Mary Tyler Moore, the comedy icon whose tremulous exclamations were hallmarks of The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Mary Tyler Moore Show in the '60s and '70s, has a benign brain tumor and has opted for surgery to remove it.
It's not clear when the surgery will take place, but Moore's spokeswoman, Alla Plotkin, said Thursday that Moore's doctors have been aware of the tumor, called a meningioma (meh-NIN'-jee-OH'-muh), for some time and have been monitoring it.
A meningioma is a slow-growing tumor in the membranes that cover the brain, mostly occurring in older women. Moore is 74. Most meningiomas are benign. They don't have to be removed if they don't cause symptoms, but even a benign tumor pressing on the brain can cause problems, such as seizures, memory loss, numbness, personality changes or blurred vision, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Doctors often operate to try to remove as much of the tumor as possible. If doctors can't remove a meningioma surgically, or if the tumor comes back even after surgery, doctors can try to shrink it with radiation.
"A meningioma grows on the meningi, which is a protective wrapping that looks like a cross between wax paper and plastic wrap, between the brain and the skull," says Anders Cohen, chief of neurosurgery at the Brooklyn Hospital Center.
Cohen says the prognosis for meningioma removal is generally successful depending on the condition of the patient before surgery and the size and location of the tumor. For instance, he says, Elizabeth Taylor had a meningioma that was successfully removed 10 years before her death.
Moore first endeared herself to TV viewers as a suburban housewife on The Dick Van Dyke Show, then went on to star in her own series, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, as a single woman pursuing a TV news career, working for gruff-but-lovable Mr. Grant, played by Ed Asner
http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2011-05-12-Mary-Tyler-Moore-to-have-brain-tumor-surgery_n.htm?csp=hf
Mary Tyler Moore, the comedy icon whose tremulous exclamations were hallmarks of The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Mary Tyler Moore Show in the '60s and '70s, has a benign brain tumor and has opted for surgery to remove it.
It's not clear when the surgery will take place, but Moore's spokeswoman, Alla Plotkin, said Thursday that Moore's doctors have been aware of the tumor, called a meningioma (meh-NIN'-jee-OH'-muh), for some time and have been monitoring it.
A meningioma is a slow-growing tumor in the membranes that cover the brain, mostly occurring in older women. Moore is 74. Most meningiomas are benign. They don't have to be removed if they don't cause symptoms, but even a benign tumor pressing on the brain can cause problems, such as seizures, memory loss, numbness, personality changes or blurred vision, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Doctors often operate to try to remove as much of the tumor as possible. If doctors can't remove a meningioma surgically, or if the tumor comes back even after surgery, doctors can try to shrink it with radiation.
"A meningioma grows on the meningi, which is a protective wrapping that looks like a cross between wax paper and plastic wrap, between the brain and the skull," says Anders Cohen, chief of neurosurgery at the Brooklyn Hospital Center.
Cohen says the prognosis for meningioma removal is generally successful depending on the condition of the patient before surgery and the size and location of the tumor. For instance, he says, Elizabeth Taylor had a meningioma that was successfully removed 10 years before her death.
Moore first endeared herself to TV viewers as a suburban housewife on The Dick Van Dyke Show, then went on to star in her own series, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, as a single woman pursuing a TV news career, working for gruff-but-lovable Mr. Grant, played by Ed Asner
http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2011-05-12-Mary-Tyler-Moore-to-have-brain-tumor-surgery_n.htm?csp=hf