Duran Duran’s Andy Taylor reveals he’s ‘asymptomatic’ after previously being classed as needing ‘palliative, end-of-life care’ amid prostate cancer battle as he shares dramatic health U-turn

Duran Duran’s Andy Taylor has told how he’s now ‘asymptomatic’ amid his prostate cancer battle after previously being classed as needing ‘palliative, end of life care’.

The ex-Duran Duran guitarist, 62, had been diagnosed with incurable stage four metastatic prostate cancer in 2018, publicly revealing the shocking news in November last year.

However, in a new interview, Andy shared a dramatic health U-turn after undergoing pioneering treatment, which came about after a doctor told him of a different treatment option that specifically targets cancer cells.

Detailing his experience with The Times, Andy told how he underwent a round of this medical intervention, which sees radioactive chemicals administered intravenously, by scientist Christopher Evans, who he referred to as the ‘Elon Musk of cancer’.

The publication reports that the rocker was ‘radioactive for several days and is unable to sleep in the same room as anybody else or use public transport

And giving an update following the treatment, Andy said: ‘I was classified as palliative, end-of-life care … and now I’m not; I’m asymptomatic.’

Andy has so far had one round of the treatment and will have five rounds to follow, each six weeks apart.

Despite the now positive outlook, Andy recalled being at a very low moment after being initially diagnosed, with at the time he had limited options with ‘nothing to keep you alive’.

He shared: ‘The lowest point is maybe six weeks after the diagnosis when it sinks in. 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.’

Andy also told how he refused chemotherapy as he didn’t want to damage the nerves in his hands due to him being a guitarist.

While he kept his illness a secret for years for the sake of his grown-up children, explaining he wanted them ‘to be able to go about life without anyone persistently asking about my health’.

Andy’s frightening diagnosis was finally revealed publicly (and to his bandmates) in a letter read out by Simon Le Bon at Duran Duran’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction in November, with Andy being too ill to attend.

Praising Simon’s delivery of the news, Andy added that it takes a person with a ‘very special quality from their heart’ to read the letter without dropping a word.

The rocker also confirmed that he would not be rejoining the band.

It comes after Andy gave a rare health update to BBC Breakfast viewers earlier this month as he said ‘Cancer just drags you and your family down into darkness’.

The guitarist who announced he had been diagnosed with incurable stage four metastatic prostate cancer last year, revealed he has got in ‘very good shape’ to have treatment.

The hitmaker admitted that he hates being a ‘stuck patient’ and wants to be able to be a ‘working patient’ to get himself out and about.

Speaking to Naga Munchetty and Charlie Stayt, Andy explained: ‘I had to get in very good shape to have this treatment, so I took care of myself in a different way.

‘And then after the first round of treatment, I said, “If I’m OK and you guys say I’m OK and you do your blood tests and that, is it OK to start work again? Sort of light work, to get out?”

‘I don’t want to be a patient stuck here, I want to be a working patient. A little beacon of hope because this stuff just drags you… cancer just drags you down into the darkness and your family, and I can work as a patient.’

It comes after Andy revealed he’s hoping to undergo ‘nuclear therapy’ after being diagnosed with incurable prostate cancer.

The guitarist said that he has gone from not expecting to have long to live to now expecting to get back to full fitness after being offered the life-saving treatment.

Taylor, who left Duran Duran in 2006, told the Rockonteurs podcast: ‘I’m starting my nuclear therapy. I’ve been having tests and scans and all kinds of far-out science stuff.

‘I have got a wonky gene as well, which was another surprise, but what it is, it’s nuclear medicine, so the stage I’m at, which was stage four like s*** basically, this therapy came into the UK only recently. It’s very, very new.’

He explained the ‘new’ medicine can help him get back to ‘full fitness’ for at least ‘five years’.

He continued: ‘And essentially it’s a nuclear medicine. It’s put into your body and it detects the cancer on the outside of the cells and it only hits cancer cells in your bones, which is mainly where it is with me, and zaps them. But if there’s a healthy cell next to it, it doesn’t touch it.

‘So it’s not curative, but it can knock out and then it’s got to start again and from what was kind of – I’ll not even say the term they used to have on the thing – but I can get back full fitness. I’ll be fine for five years.

‘The band has been great. We’ve got a lot of stuff that we’ve been working on under the radar. The solo album, I thought it was my last album, so that’s kind of where it changed.’