Dad’s Showing the Will to Fight This Skin Cancer: Tom Alter’s Son

Tom Alter’s son confirms that he’s fighting fourth stage skin cancer.

Tom Alter, veteran theatre, television and film actor, is currently receiving medical treatment at Mumbai’s Saifi hospital for stage four cancer. His son Jamie Alter confirmed to The Quint that unlike what is being widely reported, his father is not suffering from bone cancer, but a condition known as Squamous Cell Carcinoma, the second most common form of skin cancer.

The actor’s family is happy with the treatment he is receiving at Saifi hospital and hope that he’ll react positively to the treatment in the days to come.

We’re coping. It’s stage four cancer, it’s not bone cancer, like is being reported. It’s what’s called Squamous Cell Carcinoma and it’s a relapse of something he had last year, which unfortunately wasn’t detected until it reached a very advanced stage and the appropriate treatment is going on. He’s under very good care here at Saifi hospital in Bombay and we’ve got a very good medical team on board. So right now, as a family we’re going to ask for a bit of privacy until we can give updates about how the treatment is going. Honestly, we don’t have any answers because the treatment has just begun. But we as a family are very happy with the level of attention he’s getting here. We’ll let the media know through a statement as and when things get better. 

Jamie Alter, Tom Alter’s son

Jamie also confirmed that his father, aged 67, has been in a lot of physical pain and that his present condition is a relapse of something he had last year, which wasn’t detected sooner unfortunately.

He’s in a lot of pain right now. But the main point of treatment over the last week was to ease the pain and to get him back to a state of physical readiness for the treatment. So now that that has happened, now the treatment is able to start. He has stabilised. It has been a week now in the hospital. All his bodily functions are just fine, there’s no concern about them, it’s just that the body needs a certain amount of strength from where you can start the next stage of treatment. So now he’s reached that stage and the treatment will go on. He’s fighting it well. He’s showing the will to battle it out. 

Jamie Alter

A native of Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, Tom Alter is best known for his performances in the hit television show Zabaan Sambhalke, Samvidhaan: The Making of the Constitution of India and films like Aashiqui, Shatranj Ke Khiladi and Kranti. He is also a sports journalist with a special interest in cricket and was reportedly one of the first few media persons to have interviewed Sachin Tendulkar.

Tom Alter was honoured with the Padma Shri award in 2008.

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