Paul Allen Diagnosed With Cancer: Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma

SEATTLE — Microsoft Corp. co-founder and billionaire investor Paul Allen has been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and is undergoing chemotherapy.

In a memo sent to employees, Jody Allen, Paul Allen's sister and the CEO of his investment firm Vulcan Inc., said the 56-year-old received the diagnosis early this month. According to the memo, Paul Allen has diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, a relatively common form of lymphoma.

Allen battled another form of immune system cancer, Hodgkin's lymphoma, more than 20 years ago and survived. The CEO wrote that Allen "is optimistic he can beat this, too."

"Paul is feeling OK and remains upbeat," she added. "He continues to work and he has no plans to change his role at Vulcan."

Allen founded Microsoft with Bill Gates, a high school friend and fellow computer enthusiast, in 1975. He served as the company's executive vice president of research and new product development until 1983, when he left to focus on his health.

Allen remained a major shareholder and member of the board, and went on to invest broadly in technology, real estate, sports and the arts.

He formed Vulcan in the mid-1980s to invest in media and communications companies, including America Online, DreamWorks Animation and cable operator Charter Communications Inc. He also co-founded a Silicon Valley research lab that he then shuttered after investing more than $100 million.

Beyond technology, Allen has used his Microsoft earnings to take his interests to an extreme. A longtime sports fan, Allen bought football's Seattle Seahawks and basketball's Portland Trailblazers, and he is part owner of the Seattle Sounders FC, a major league soccer team. Allen has been present at Seahawks games this season, chatting in the locker room with players. He has a band and a recording studio, and built the Experience Music Project, a museum about rock music in Seattle.

Allen has also collected and restored more than 30 vintage airplanes, started a brain science institute and through Vulcan's real estate arm redeveloped a large swath of downtown Seattle known as the South Lake Union neighborhood.

At last count, Allen's net worth totaled about $11.5 billion, making him the 17th richest person in the world according to Forbes' September 2009 tally.

Comments

[littlebrowngirl]

I think it is true that health is your most valuable asset.

[TheOuroborus]

I wonder what's on his Bucket List?

[HekmabaJuzimakz]

Buying Apple

[tjpw0850]

Paul Allen, you beat cancer once you can do it again. Hang in there big guy.

[Hiphopcrates]

Medicare for everyone, now!

[Hawklord Tst]

damn. thats sad. best of luck man. we're rooting for ya

[jws2346]

This is very sad to hear. I wish you "Gods speed" Mr Allen. No matter how you might feel about Mr Allen, I wouldn't want anyone to suffer from cancer.

[HekmabaJuzimakz]

Me neither. Very terrible and sad also.

[aintmisbehavin]

Now that's one person I wish I could have met! Nothing like a self-made man
who puts his money where his mouth is, not to mention all the interesting
hobbies, collections & investments he took on.

[IntelligenceQuantifier]

Met? Don't write him off just yet, you still have time to meet him. Keep your fingers crossed.

[Henk]

Does sound like an interesting person with very diverse interests.

[Trittydi]

Vitamin D3 - lots of it. It is known to cure most of 60% of cancers.

Lots of it - it's less toxic than water. There has never been a single case of vitamin D poisoning.
*

[HekmabaJuzimakz]

Is this finding published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, or MAD Magazine?

[rr00]

Get well soon, Mr. Allen!!!

[jeanrenoir]

Why is this news outside Seattle? Paul Allen has been an ordinary super-rich guy for decades now, no more a celeb than some mega real estate developer. It's no more significant that he has cancer than that any ordinary citizen does, as millions do.

[Angie Cordeiro - Huffpost Blogger]

Think again, actually think differentl­y...becaus­e this man was at or near the helm of changing our world.

[JRsNana]

This man deserves your compassion. Obviously that is not forthcoming. He, along with Bill Gates, changed the world. I think that deserves, at the very least, a nod from "outside Seattle", don't you?

[stillable2think]

I wish him the best. Cancer is not an easy illness.

[SwingingFromCenter]

Keep on keepin' on, Paul. You're one of the few who has really made an impression on society as a whole. Seattle wouldn't be the same without you.

[Angie Cordeiro - Huffpost Blogger]

"Health is our only wealth."

[Balzac]

Actually, wealth is wealth too. Paul Allen probably has a good prognosis, and I wish him good health. He also has wealth, so he knows his family is covered. Health is good, but wealth is important too. That's why so many of us trade our health for wealth, or for something else, as the case may be, slowly dying behind our computers.

[condor101]

Wealth can buy you many things, but it can't buy good health.

Health is priceless.

[condor101]

Proving that good health is more valuable than having billions of dollars.

But on the bright side for him; At least he doesn't have to worry about health care insurance and bills.

[oxygen]

Together, our results suggest that therapies using cannabinoid receptor ligands will have efficiency in reducing tumor burden in malignant lymphoma overexpressing CB1 and CB2.

Int J Cancer. 2008 Sep 1;123(5):1025-33.
Expression of cannabinoid receptors type 1 and type 2 in non-Hodgkin lymphoma: growth inhibition by receptor activation.

Gustafsson K, Wang X, Severa D, Eriksson M, Kimby E, Merup M, Christensson B, Flygare J, Sander B.

Department of Laboratory Medicine, Division of Pathology, Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital Huddinge, F-46, SE-14186 Stockholm, Sweden.