Dana Reeve

Christopher Reeve's widow announced Tuesday that she's facing a battle with lung cancer and is looking to her husband "as the ultimate example of defying the odds with strength, courage and hope." "I hope before too long to be sharing news of my good health and recovery," said Dana Reeve, who won worldwide admiration for her steadfast support of her husband during his nine years as a quadriplegic. Christopher Reeve, the star of the "Superman" movies, died last year.

Why does lung cancer sometimes take the lives of people who have never smoked? People like Dana Reeve, the wife of late actor Christopher Reeve and actress who died of the disease in 2006 at age 44? One possible explanation is that lung cancer in smokers may constitute a different disease than that found in nonsmokers. In research presented Tuesday, scientists found that the DNA alterations found in the genetic code of tumors in smokers differed from that found in people who never smoked and developed lung cancer.

Re "Supporting Role Thrust Her to Fame," March 8 Dana Reeve once asked, "How much can one little soul bear?" She was not referring to herself. She had not a speck of self-pity. Reeve asked the question when she knew she would have to tell her son, Will, of her cancer diagnosis. Reeve's light has not gone out. My heart goes out to young Will Reeve. May the indomitable will and spirit of his remarkable parents carry his soul through the grief he must bear. JEANINE D'ELIA Granada Hills

Re "Supporting Role Thrust Her to Fame," March 8 Dana Reeve once asked, "How much can one little soul bear?" She was not referring to herself. She had not a speck of self-pity. Reeve asked the question when she knew she would have to tell her son, Will, of her cancer diagnosis. Reeve's light has not gone out. My heart goes out to young Will Reeve. May the indomitable will and spirit of his remarkable parents carry his soul through the grief he must bear. JEANINE D'ELIA Granada Hills

Why does lung cancer sometimes take the lives of people who have never smoked? People like Dana Reeve, the wife of late actor Christopher Reeve and actress who died of the disease in 2006 at age 44? One possible explanation is that lung cancer in smokers may constitute a different disease than that found in nonsmokers. In research presented Tuesday, scientists found that the DNA alterations found in the genetic code of tumors in smokers differed from that found in people who never smoked and developed lung cancer.

Away from the spotlight that their celebrity brought to the cause of spinal research, Dana and Christopher Reeve took a less-glamorous path through the corridors of power. "We spend our lives going through kitchens and riding on freight elevators," Dana Reeve once recalled of the near decade that she and her paralyzed actor husband spent tirelessly lobbying for stem cell research, a potential treatment for paralysis.

Only days after the accident, the letters started pouring in, thousands of letters, some addressed simply, "Superman, USA." Within three weeks, 35,000 pieces of mail for Christopher Reeve had been received at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville, where the actor was taken after suffering a broken neck in a fall while jumping his horse on May 27, 1995. It was, said his wife, Dana, a "really quite stunning" show of support.

Amid the understandable torrent of praise for her devotion, let us now praise Dana Reeve for her talent. Start with the singing. I first encountered Dana in 1987 at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, where she was a member of the Cabaret, which put on musical revues. Then in her mid-20s, she gave a rendition of Bob Merrill and Jule Styne's "The Music That Makes Me Dance" that brought down the house (and won the heart of Christopher Reeve, a WTF regular).

A 25-year-old Los Angeles man paralyzed from the waist down after being hit by a car in 2006 has regained the ability to stand, take steps on a treadmill and move his hips, knees, ankles and toes voluntarily as a result of an experimental treatment developed at UCLA and the University of Louisville. Rob Summers has also regained some bladder and sexual function after intensive rehabilitation and two years of electrical stimulation to his damaged spinal cord with a device normally used for pain relief, researchers reported Thursday.

On a bright afternoon after a lot of rain, Calla Tartikoff is beginning a physical therapy session at a small gym on Melrose Avenue. Two women--both intensely focused on Calla--lean over her on a Pilates bed, one making sure her hips are in the right place, the other pushing her feet. Calla's shadow, Brigitte Poirier, is sitting nearby on a big exercise ball, bouncing slightly. Calla is having trouble paying attention.

Amid the understandable torrent of praise for her devotion, let us now praise Dana Reeve for her talent. Start with the singing. I first encountered Dana in 1987 at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, where she was a member of the Cabaret, which put on musical revues. Then in her mid-20s, she gave a rendition of Bob Merrill and Jule Styne's "The Music That Makes Me Dance" that brought down the house (and won the heart of Christopher Reeve, a WTF regular).

Away from the spotlight that their celebrity brought to the cause of spinal research, Dana and Christopher Reeve took a less-glamorous path through the corridors of power. "We spend our lives going through kitchens and riding on freight elevators," Dana Reeve once recalled of the near decade that she and her paralyzed actor husband spent tirelessly lobbying for stem cell research, a potential treatment for paralysis.

Christopher Reeve's widow announced Tuesday that she's facing a battle with lung cancer and is looking to her husband "as the ultimate example of defying the odds with strength, courage and hope." "I hope before too long to be sharing news of my good health and recovery," said Dana Reeve, who won worldwide admiration for her steadfast support of her husband during his nine years as a quadriplegic. Christopher Reeve, the star of the "Superman" movies, died last year.

Only days after the accident, the letters started pouring in, thousands of letters, some addressed simply, "Superman, USA." Within three weeks, 35,000 pieces of mail for Christopher Reeve had been received at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville, where the actor was taken after suffering a broken neck in a fall while jumping his horse on May 27, 1995. It was, said his wife, Dana, a "really quite stunning" show of support.

Women who have never smoked are no more likely to die from lung cancer than male nonsmokers -- despite conventional wisdom. In fact, men who never smoked had higher lung cancer death rates than female lifelong nonsmokers, the study of nearly a million Americans found. "Our findings, paradoxically, are compatible with the clinical perception that women outnumber men among lung cancer patients who never smoked," said Dr. Michael Thun of the American Cancer Society, who led the study.

THERE is nobility in their deaths that will forever link the names of Dana Reeve and Tom Fox, though one died in the care of a hospital, surrounded by those who loved her, and the other alone, his body mutilated by torture, tossed aside in the fields of war. They never met and perhaps never thought about each other, but the quality of their character unites them.