Founding Duran Duran member and guitarist Andy Taylor is fighting his stage 4 prostate cancer “as hard as he can,” according to his bandmates.
The 63-year-old musician revealed his stage 4 prostate cancer diagnosis in November 2022, saying his cancer was “asymptomatic” after he was initially diagnosed in 2018.
Speaking at a press conference at the Sanremo Music Festival in Italy, frontman Simon Le Bon said that Taylor’s diagnosis was “very late, fourth-stage metastasized cancer.”
“I am sure he would love to be here,” he told attendees, Daily Mail reported. “He’s fighting as hard as he can, and we are with him in that fight.”
The rocker announced his diagnosis in 2022 through his bandmates Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, John Taylor, and Roger Taylor, who read out a letter at their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction speech in Los Angeles.
Taylor was unable to attend the band’s induction ceremony, but Le Bon read a letter on behalf of the musician.
Following the announcement, the Brit told fans he had been told he needed “palliative, end-of-life care.”
Elsewhere during his appearance at the festival, Le Bon told fans that the group has managed to stay together through so many decades because they never had disputes over money.
“There is something between us that keeps us together,” he said. “First of all, we love the music we make together. Nobody else makes music like we do. We’ve all tried to do things on our own, and it just doesn’t seem as exciting as when the four of us get together and work.”
“We make each other laugh, and I think that’s very important in a long relationship. When we are under stress, we laugh all the way through it, and it keeps everything light and fun,” he went on.
“And the other thing is, we split all the proceeds equally. No one takes all the publishing. We all share the finances equally.”
Speaking to The Times of London in 2023, Taylor said that a doctor told him about a breakthrough cancer drug, dubbed “a nuclear medicine” called Lutetium-177, that targets cancer cells.
In August 2023, Taylor said that the breakthrough cancer drug extended his life “for five years.”
After undergoing a round of the said treatment conducted by Christopher Evans, whom Taylor referred to as the “Elon Musk of cancer,” the rocker was “radioactive for several days.”
“I was classified as palliative, end-of-life care… and now I’m not. I’m asymptomatic,” he told the outlet at the time, adding that he was unable to sleep in the same room as others, or use public transportation.
Taylor recalled he was feeling very down by the limited treatment options.
“You’re gonna have to say goodbye to your family. You’re not going to see your grandson’s tenth birthday. Psychologically it’s mind-blowing — you can’t have therapy to remove the certainty of death,” he added.
The rocker refused chemotherapy treatment early on because he didn’t want any nerve damage done to his hands.
Explaining the decision to keep his diagnosis a secret for years, Taylor said at the time that he wanted his grown-up children “to be able to go about life without anyone persistently asking about my health.”