Advertisement

Doctors: He Died of Cancer, Not AIDS : Medical: Physicians were prepared for rumors, but insist that former Raider had rare brain lymphoma.

Share
TIMES STAFF WRITER

Once the news hit that Lyle Alzado was suffering from inoperable brain cancer, the rumors began.

Splattered across tabloids and whispered in gyms was the theory that Alzado really had AIDS; that he hid behind a claim that he was suffering from brain cancer caused by anabolic steroids because it was viewed as a more macho way to die. That’s how it went. In some circles, that’s how it still goes.

But doctors who treated Alzado are adamant that he died from primary brain lymphoma--not AIDS--and were prepared to explain the events that they believed fueled the rumors.

Advertisement

Alzado had pneumonia in the months before he died, a common condition in AIDS patients, but also a typical complication of chemotherapy, said Dr. Thomas DeLoughery, a blood-cancer specialist at Oregon Health Sciences University, who treated Alzado in the final months before his death.

“Lyle’s pneumonia was caused by bacteria, not by the unusual organisms associated with AIDS,” DeLoughery said.

Alzado no longer had pneumonia by the time he left the hospital, DeLoughery said, about six weeks before his death, May 14.

Then, Alzado was buried the day after his death, fast for anyone, especially for someone of celebrity status, raising more eyebrows.

Kathy Alzado said it was held fast because that’s the way she and Lyle wanted it.

DeLoughery and Dr. Robert Huizenga, who treated Alzado at UCLA before he went to Portland, have staked their reputations on the cause of Alzado’s death as primary brain lymphoma, a rare form of cancer. And that too, has raised questions.

Huizenga said in January that Alzado had T-cell lymphoma, not B-cell, a condition associated with AIDS patients. However, on Alzado’s death certificate, DeLoughery listed the cause of death as B-cell lymphoma.

Advertisement

“The pathologist at UCLA examined the tissue and said it was T-cell lymphoma, and then when Lyle went to Oregon, the pathologist there examined the same piece of tissue and called it B-cell,” Huizenga said.

“In either case, B-cell or T-cell, Lyle was tested for HTLV-3 (the AIDS virus) and HTLV-1 (which is an AIDS-related, lymphoma-causing virus) at UCLA and doctors found nothing, and I believe doctors in Oregon continued to test him once he got there.”

DeLoughery said he and other doctors at Oregon Health Sciences University were prepared for the barrage of questions after Alzado’s death.

“We went overboard in AIDS testing with Lyle because we knew these questions would arise,” DeLoughery said. “At the press conference I was asked all these questions.

“He (Alzado) clearly was not infected with HIV. His T-cells were inflamed, but his malignant cells were B-cell lymphoma, but he didn’t have AIDS. He continued to test negative until his death.”

Advertisement