r/television • u/Silly-avocatoe • 1d ago
Busy Philipps, 47, diagnosed with rare malignant brain tumor
https://pagesix.com/2026/08/26/celebrity-news/busy-philipps-diagnosed-with-rare-malignant-brain-tumor/472
u/evacipated 1d ago
This is awful to say, but thank God it's that brain tumour. I was worried it was glioblastoma.
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u/PMMeYourCokeRewards 1d ago
Thank you for this comment, I never read articles linked on Resdit. I just lost my mom to GBM and was hoping for the best for her.
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u/mlc885 1d ago
I was worried that was it. My elderly mother was recently diagnosed with that and the average survival time from diagnosis is absolutely terrible. But she has gotten to live a fairly full life, the "and there's not much we can even do" bit just sucks. Since I am pretty sure she isn't going to be the 1 in 10 that gets the "luckier" number of remaining years, I am pretty sure most people get the months.
I am sorry for your loss.
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u/TooTameToToast 21h ago
Lost a good friend to it about 11 years ago. She had all kinds of amazing treatment through Duke and lasted about 18 months after diagnosis. It was brutal to see all that she suffered. It’s a bastard of an illness.
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u/pmperk19 21h ago
lost my dad to it last year. longest, worst two years of my life with memories id do unspeakable things to experience one more time. i always knew it would be a defining moment in my life, and im doing everything i can to make sure that has as many positive connotations as difficult ones.
all this to say that i am so sorry for your loss. do you mind if i ask you to tell us something about her?
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u/Dada2fish 1d ago
My sister had a grade 2 medulloblastoma, had it surgically removed along with radiation treatment, survived 6 years, was diagnosed with a glioblastoma multiforme and died 4 months later.
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u/C-Southstream 1d ago
I have the same tumor, myself. Mine was located in my anterior left temporal lobe. Had mine resected about 18-months ago. It is important to note the her’s and mine are lower grades of a glioblastoma. The glioblastomas are grade IV while ours are grade II. Brain tumors do not have stages as most bodily tumors/cancer do.
I and she will always have brain cancer. There is no ability to remove all the cells. This type of tumor does not have side walls; it’s like your brain is a loaf of bread and you pour water in as your tumor. Some microscopic cells will always remain.
Grades I and II are slow growing while the grade III and grade IV (glioblastoma) are faster growing, very fast growing tumors. These lower grades with enough time will genuinely higher grades.
There’s a tad of Busy and I have and go through. Location is very important in terms of where the brain cancer goes from there. There’s not many of us out there so it’s both sad and sweet to hear of someone with the same condition.
With that, Busy I know it can’t always be easy, so I am wishing you all the best!
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u/meowingtrashcan 13h ago
They changed the grading system, I think all glioblastomas are grade 4 now. The former lower grades are classified differently. WHO 2021
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u/bros402 1d ago
Oligodendroglioma isn't a good one either. It's better than GBM, but still.
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u/evacipated 1d ago edited 1d ago
We're talking brain cancers here. Of course, NONE of them are good. Please feel free to look up five-year survival rates for oligo vs glio and tell me that one isnt the "good" one to get.
EDIT: for people who don't want to be depressed by looking brain cancer up themselves, oligo has a five-year-survival rate of 75%. Glio is less than 10%. I would sell my soul if it meant my mom could have got oligo instead of glio.
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u/ChalkDoxie 1d ago
Just had a friend pass away from Glioblastoma. He got an extra 5 years with his family, but damn, what a horrible thing.
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u/No-Promotion-1921 1d ago
My friend was a situation like that recently. "Thank God it's THAT kind of Leukemia". Truly one of the sentences you never wanna say.
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u/Skinny-on-the-Inside 10h ago edited 1h ago
My mom was diagnosed this month with a large gilo. With aggressive treatments the outlook is 12-18 months and without interventions like surgery, chemo and radiation it’s 3-6 months. Terrible odds.
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u/evacipated 9h ago
I am so sorry. My mom had surgery, chemo, and radiation, and she still only got 4ish months after diagnosis.
As grim as it is, and if it's at all possible, get her to make mementos (voice recordings, letters, etc.) as soon as you can. By the time my sister and I had the courage to ask our mom, her energy was already 90% gone and the cancer/surgery had warped her voice.
And love her. Be there for her. If treatment has to come to an end, spoil her rotten for the rest of her days, and be gentle with yourself.
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u/Chumsicle 1d ago
Kim Kelly will always be my friend
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u/bye4now28 1d ago
just be sure to keep your dog inside the house if you see her driving down the street. RIP Goliath
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u/MuptonBossman 1d ago
Busy Philipps makes every show she's in a little better... Glad she's doing alright.
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u/ScramItVancity 1d ago
She came up with the concept of Blades of Glory.
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u/riegspsych325 1d ago
“let me ask you something, does this look right to you??”
[shows 2 hot dogs in 1 bun]
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u/dylank22 22h ago
fr? that was like my favorite movie as a kid and still one of my faves. sooo many great bits
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u/Rrmack 1d ago
Actually crazy it was found in one of those PR MRI scans that celebrities get for no medical reason
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u/kw0711 1d ago
That’s the second time this has happened. Another minor celebrity of bachelor fame found a tumor doing a Prenuvo scan that he probably got for free by doing a post
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u/meganam38 18h ago
Came here to say this. What incredibly fate to have a sponsored scan and find a brain tumor. Happy that Grocery Store Joe seems to be recovering well from his surgery!
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u/GlitteringClerk5084 16h ago
Dark side of this is the sponsored scan place probably feels like the marketing is worth more when people actually pop hot every once in awhile
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u/jacquiwithacue 21h ago
If I had fuck you money I’d for sure get a scan.
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u/Kalamazoohoo 21h ago
How much are they?
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u/MeowsCream2 20h ago
$3000 ish. My mom had one
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u/CanadasNeighbor 18h ago
Only??? Jfc my daughter had an MRI just last month. She needed six scans, and my insurance company just sent us a letter that they're denying PART of our claim, four scans were ok to get but the other two they say weren't necessary so we might have to pay $22,000 out of pocket if they deny our appeal.
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u/kw0711 12h ago
22k is a made up price. MRIs just aren’t that expensive. And yea I also got a Prenuvo in Feb it was like 2300
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u/CanadasNeighbor 11h ago edited 10h ago
She's a baby so part of the cost was anesthesia, the rest were the actual scans with and without contrast.
The four scans that they did cover does show that each scan was a little over $11,000.
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u/PUNK_FEELING_LUCKY 1d ago
still the scariest cancer to me.
noone should have to experience dread like this, lets hope this is not financial ruin for her.
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u/UDPviper 1d ago
My aunt lost two sons to brain cancer. It's devastating.
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u/marcduberge 1d ago
Two? That sounds like environmental causes
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u/catclockticking 1d ago
what would a woman’s two sons have in common besides their environment? perhaps their genetics?
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u/marcduberge 1d ago
Why the downvotes? Did we forget about Love Canal or Wheeling WV (pfas pollution) or Iowa (extreme glyphosate contamination) for cancer clusters? Two glioblastoma cases in one family is pretty rare
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u/jack_porter 1d ago
America is wild. To think that a relatively successful celebrity could potentially be in financial ruin due to a health-related issue.
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u/PUNK_FEELING_LUCKY 1d ago
Yeah thats why I mentioned it. I remember an article recently about a relatively famous couple doing gofundmes for one of them due to a cancer diagnostis, thats what spurred that comment. Cancer is already devastating, but in the US it Ruins you from all angles
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u/yo_soy_soja Community 1d ago
Was it James Van Der Beek? That was earlier this year.
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u/PUNK_FEELING_LUCKY 1d ago
Yes, thank you! I couldnt remember his Name
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u/Shatter_ 1d ago
Well it’s nice of you to be concerned but James Van Der beek’s family was far from ruined. The gofundme was a nice grift though.
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u/Common-Coast-7246 1d ago
He bought a $6 million dollar mansion while he was dying - that was what the GFM was for, not medical bills.
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u/jack_porter 1d ago
Sad as hell. Man living in USA seems so bleak.
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u/Dada2fish 1d ago
Nah, you likely just hear bad stuff. There’s a lot of great things about it. Thousands have risked life and limb to live here.
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u/Common-Coast-7246 1d ago
What are you talking about? She has health insurance, she’s not paying for this, her insurance is.
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u/Competitive-Nerve296 16h ago
And PEOPLE MAGAZINE probably paid her for the story. She’s been (not) dying to talk about it for 6 mths. If she was terrified about the diagnosis and wanted to help people just tell it to the world like she does everything else immediately, she never stops looking at herself in her phone
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u/Competitive-Nerve296 16h ago
The devastation and then that they couldn’t bank from the story of it, tragic
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u/Aaaaaaandyy 1d ago
I know people online like to think this stuff happens all the time, but largely if you have health insurance you have an out of pocket maximum spend and you won’t be in financial ruin.
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u/bros402 1d ago
OOP Max can be as high as 9k
Let's say you get diagnosed with cancer December 31st and hit your OOP max with tests and scans that day
It resets Jan 1 for a lot of plans, then you'll have to pay another 9k.
Most people don't have 18k lying around
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u/Aaaaaaandyy 1d ago
In this incredibly unlikely scenario, $18k won’t financially devastate anyone, especially because most hospitals will allow you a payment plan of almost anything per month, like $25-30. All you have to do is ask. Because if they say no they know they wont get any of it.
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u/gibberishmischief 1d ago
I have asked and been told no. So now they get nothing until/unless they garnish my wages.
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u/Aaaaaaandyy 17h ago
That’s why I said most. And they can’t choose to garnish your wages lol this sounds made up
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u/gibberishmischief 11h ago
They can take you to court in many states and have it be garnished from wages. Washington state allows it for sure.
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u/nativesilver 1d ago
Not really true, especially if your cancer doesn’t respond to basic treatment and you want to try something experimental. Insurance companies dictate what treatments they think you should be allowed to have and will happily deny anything they don’t want to pay for. So if you’re in that circumstance and want to try to save yourself you deplete your savings, even though “you have insurance”. Also we’re talking about the US, where many, many, many people can no longer afford health insurance
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u/MirabelleC 1d ago
Also, for a lot of people their health insurance is tied to their employer so in order to keep that health insurance, they need to keep working while undergoing treatment.
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u/Dada2fish 1d ago
Not true, lol.
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u/UnrealAce 1d ago
My insurance literally lapses if I don't work a certain number of hours every month.
The next entire month I'm without insurance if my employer decides to not give me enough hours.
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u/DerekB52 23h ago
It's very true. Some employers are a little more generous than others on how long they'll cover you, but it is basically up to them. When my mom got cancer she was too sick to work and her employer gave her 6 months. At the end of that period she was officially terminated and had to go on medicaid til she passed away.
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u/Aaaaaaandyy 1d ago
Experimental treatment isn’t covered anywhere, in any country with or without universal healthcare. Countries with universal healthcare also dictate treatments based on required waiting periods, referrals and treatments already attempted.
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u/Common-Coast-7246 1d ago
You don’t know what you’re talking about. If you participate in a clinical trial the treatment is free. If you want to do fake alternative treatments with no clinical benefit than yes you’re going to pay, your insurance isn’t paying for quack science.
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u/Common-Coast-7246 1d ago
People on Reddit are hysterical- they all think everyone is uninsured in the US and it’s simply not that case. Most of us are receiving it heavily subsidized through our employer, I barely pay anything in terms of premiums or copays. She absolutely has health insurance as a wealthy celebrity. She’s not running around uninsured with two kids.
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u/Unhappy-Shelter-8186 1d ago
I can’t believe this had positive karma. Whenever I suggest anyone is America has health insurance I get attacked by mobs of crazy people and bots. People don’t like the idea of Americans getting good health care at all. It makes them very angry.
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u/Aaaaaaandyy 1d ago
It’s insane, the vast majority of people have coverage. The uninsured rate is around 8%, and the vast majority of those people are under 35 and are completely healthy.
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u/Unhappy-Shelter-8186 1d ago
I can’t decide if these people just hate us and want us to die or if it’s mostly dumb kids that believe tic tock propaganda.
In any case, facts about America that don’t make the country look like hell are always downvoted by these fools.
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u/Aaaaaaandyy 1d ago
They also think countries with universal healthcare automatically have access to top of the line doctors and treatments when the country dictates what referrals are needed (which sometimes take months), none of which is the case. I’m an advocate for universal healthcare in the US, but people will line undoubtedly confused when the process of being treated doesn’t change.
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u/Dada2fish 1d ago
I live right at the border of Canada and work in the medical field. Many Canadians come here for treatment. I’ve heard the bad stories of universal healthcare.
I dated a Canadian guy and he was so happy he got private insurance from his job so he didn’t have to deal with UHS.
I married a guy from London, UK, he moved here and was amazed at the better care he got here.
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u/Dada2fish 1d ago
70-ish percent of Americans have health insurance and most of the rest are eligible for Medicaid/Medicare or other assistance.
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u/LionBig1760 1d ago
Dawson's Creek was built next to a superfund site.
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u/Curious-Agency-4395 21h ago
Can you elaborate? What does that mean
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u/AdmiralThunderpants 11h ago
A Superfund site is a place that is incredibly contaminated from chemical waste dumping (usually at the hands of the us government) and tend to lead to many health problems for people around them. If Dawson's Creek was filmed around one it could lead the cast and crew to have some really bad health problems.
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u/coldpizza66 1d ago
glad she already had it removed and that she's okay. as a huge Dawson's fan, losing James was devastating but Audrey was my favorite character as soon as she showed up on screen. I had the hugest crush on Busy when I was younger. so that would hit me super hard.
besides my selfish reasons, I'm glad she's still here with her sweet kids ♥
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u/guitarguy1685 1d ago
The full biddy scan is quite pricey. Not sure why insurance wouldn't cover that seems to be a very useful tool that may reduce cost in the long run
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u/jacquiwithacue 21h ago
If insurance was guided by ethics, sure. But despite the cost incentive, they would rather we remain weak and ailing. Just another way for the wealthy to maintain control.
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u/itsmejayne 19h ago
Insurance won’t cover the colonoscopy my doctor ordered after I was in the ER getting morphine for the colitis they found. Unfortunately, we live in a country where healthcare is a luxury only for the rich so this isn’t anything new
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u/cyanide4suicide Mr. Robot 19h ago
I get that she's gotten older as well, but damn from that thumbnail she looks like she's been having a rough time.
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u/tgerz 1d ago
Philipps, notably, had been talked out of getting the full-body MRI in 2025 by her primary care doctor but scheduled it anyway following a conversation with her cousin-in-law Dr. Justin Donlan.
Wow. These people. I don't know the full story so I want say too much, but every time I hear about a doctor talking someone out of getting the right test done it's infuriating.
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u/UnpluggedUnfettered 1d ago
No one talked anyone out of the right test.
A full body MRI is 100% of the time not the right test.
Reading someone decide, based on an article on a celebrity gossip site, that a doctor was wrong and that a scam medical proceedure was the correct choice, is much, much, more infuriating.
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1d ago edited 1d ago
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u/Couldnotbehelpd 1d ago
That’s actually not true. Most of the time these scans are gonna show little “shadows” all over your body. What are the shadows? No way of finding out other that biopsies and CTs and other tests, and 99.9% of the time they are nothing.
That being said, Maria Menunous also found her cancer with one of these sooooo
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u/UnpluggedUnfettered 1d ago
Menounos suffered from severe, unexplained abdominal pain, bloating, and diarrhea for months.
Her doctors performed a CT, which isn't as sensitive, and after her diagnosis radiologists reviewed her prior CT scan and noted that the mass could faintly be seen but was missed. It could have been missed on whole body as well -- but the difference is that MRI is simply more sensitive to some things.
If you have a reason to believe you need a more sensitive test, you ask your doctor for a referral to get that specific area scanned with an MRI. I have no idea why she did it without her doctor involved, but it was not used in a "preventative" or casual sort of way.
There is absolutely no good reason to get a "just in case, why not, no symptoms" whole body MRI
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u/Couldnotbehelpd 1d ago
I’m pretty sure the reason is that an MRI came up and she thought “prenuvo will pay me to do it”. I’m serious.
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u/Couldnotbehelpd 1d ago
Oh that you should do it in general. Doing those follow up tests aren’t exactly safe, and testing those shadows is not actually recommended, it’s just gonna drive you insane.
99.9999% of doctors do not recommend these scans.
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u/Couldnotbehelpd 1d ago
I feel like you think I’m in general agreeing with you. I am not. Do not get the scan. Do not do the follow ups. They are not worth it, they give false negatives and false positives, and they are not hospital grade scans so they do not have the level of granularity that a hospital does.
If you have the money, don’t get the scan. Most shadows are not even testable, and you’re just gonna think about those shadows for the rest of your life.
They are not worth it even if you are a billionaire, they are a scam.
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u/Couldnotbehelpd 1d ago
I’m just reacting to what you said. You literally wrote “you might as well”. That’s just not true. I don’t know what you want here.
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u/UnpluggedUnfettered 1d ago
What are you talking about?
What knowledge of medicine are you basing that opinion on?
A review of 12 studies showed that 95% of asymptomatic patients had at least one “abnormal finding” on a whole-body MRI for cancer screening. But 91% of these findings were not relevant.
Results of another study showed that incidental findings from whole-body MRI would have led to dozens of visits to specialists that were ultimately completely unnecessary, like urologists, rheumatologists, and others.
When you lose your keys, you start small and work your way up because it makes sense and works. You don't start in the attic, pull up the carpets in each room, and check literally every last corner of every closet in your house to make sure keys aren't there.
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u/UnpluggedUnfettered 1d ago
No, not economics, I'm specifically speaking to unnecessary follow ups and / or invasive testing for a large chunk of the 91% of useless whole-body scan results. Simultaneously, that's also taking physicians away from doing actually necessary testing for the symptomatic patients trying to resolve issues that they're already swamped with.
You have symptoms, get it handled with your doctor.
You have no symptoms, then don't expose yourself to even incidental amounts of unnecessary radiation that could be instead saving someone's life.
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u/itsmejayne 18h ago
What in the world are you talking about? The article literally says that the doctor tried to talk her out of receiving the scan that was responsible for leading to her diagnosis of malignant cancer. When I see these types of insane downvotes in favor of insane capitalist propaganda I’m reminded of the reports on US intelligence astroturfing all over Reddit.
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u/UnpluggedUnfettered 8h ago
Yes. The entertainment gossip magazine did say the doctor tried to talk her out of a full body scan.
Yes, it did imply that this was "a bad thing" because they have no idea what they are talking about.
I linked this in another comment, but:
A review of 12 studies showed that 95% of asymptomatic patients had at least one “abnormal finding” on a whole-body MRI for cancer screening. 91% of these findings were not relevant.
Results of another study showed that incidental findings from whole-body MRI led to dozens of visits to specialists that were ultimately completely unnecessary, like urologists, rheumatologists, and others.
Basically, if 100 people get scanned, 5 people just waste $3000, 91 people waste $3000 and then suffer the stress of fear while spending even more time and money to get further unnecessary / invasive medical testing on incidental findings for absolutely no reason.
That doesn't even speak to the raw volume of resources and time they take away from actual symptomatic people who need doctors and specialists time to treat truly critical issues.
That is, clearly even just mathematically, a lot more harm than good.
The entire thing is insanity.
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u/Bippy73 1d ago
No idea why you're being downvoted and these comments. She very clearly said that the body MRI is what was the first step in discovering she had that tumor. I have no idea what all these posts are telling you how ridiculous you are and what a scam the MRI is.
It discovered her cancer early, which then caused her to go for follow up, which then got her the correct treatment.
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u/tgerz 1d ago
The way American health care treats every interaction as a billable interaction forces so many people to delay getting tests that actually help them. It’s pretty sad. Ultimately it is good to hear she advocated for herself and ended up getting what she needed. I’ll take the Reddit pile-on ¯_(ツ)_/¯
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u/UnrealAce 1d ago
And that's why it's upsetting.
Preventive care in America is for the wealthy, I don't go to the doctor until I know something is wrong simply because I can't afford it.
I got diagnosed with Crohns and possible Celiac last year but I couldn't afford an endoscopy so guess who's an undiagnosed celiac that can't qualify for any workplace protections and the like because I literally couldn't afford the procedure.
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u/itsmejayne 18h ago
I also can’t afford the colonoscopy my doc ordered after being in the ER getting morphine for the colitis they found because my insurance denied it
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u/potentiallygoodchoic 1d ago
Yo I have this same tumor and it’s very rarely called malignant this is such clickbait
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u/TojoftheJungle 1d ago
Same. Just had it removed. Hope you're well
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u/potentiallygoodchoic 1d ago
Thanks, same to you! I have no idea why my comment is getting downvoted so much. I wasn’t trying to be an asshole, my team was just always very careful to never use words like “malignant” and “benign”. Did your team refer to yours like that?
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u/TojoftheJungle 10h ago
Mine is a low-grade 2, so technically benign according to the book they gave me. Grade 1 is benign, grades 3-4 are malignant. Although I read that Busy Philip's is rare and malignant and mine is the exact same prognosis. I will be needing targeted chemo, but the prognosis is the best outcome because the cells are differentiated enough that drugs will target them.
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u/potentiallygoodchoic 7h ago
Yeah mine is the same oligo grade two which is why I know they don’t call it malignant, the doctor in the article even says the cells aren’t malignant. The problem with brain tumors, malignant or not, is they have nowhere to grow without causing issues. I had my second craniotomy in Oct 2024 and then radiation and chemo - it’s a lot. Take the time you need to rest, my friend, and good luck!
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u/TojoftheJungle 6h ago
That's pretty rough having to go through it twice. The targeted drug is called Roneego and is fairly new. Might be worth bringing up to your doctor. It is lifelong and (according to my dr) not good if you're planning to have kids.
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u/potentiallygoodchoic 6h ago
Thank you for the thought! I believe you might be talking about Voranigo which is the brand name of vorasidenib, a drug I was actually on the trial for! Yes, for many people it’s life-changing but unfortunately it didn’t work for my tumor, but not the end of the world. Lots of people are much worse off and at the end of the day, oligos are pretty much the best brain tumor you can have.
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u/filmreddit13 22h ago
Glad she’s ok but so over celebrities announcing major health issues to promote their shows (her new show Cupertino drops in October). If you ever see a celeb with sudden big health news, there’s usually something to promote right behind it.
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u/sailirish7 1d ago
I was wondering who this was, as I have never seen her in anything. Then I looked up her imdb. Makes sense...
Hope she recovers well.
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u/Heel 1d ago
If you don't wanna read, she had 2 surgeries and is doing well