“Dilbert” creator Scott Adams revealed on Thursday that his health is worsening and that the chances of him recovering from advanced prostate cancer are “essentially zero.” He suggested he could die within the month.
During a livestream of his podcast Real Coffee with Scott Adams, the controversial cartoonist said he had spoken to his radiologist a day earlier “and it’s all bad news.”
“The odds of me recovering are essentially zero,” Adams, 68. “I’ll give you any updates if that changes, but it won’t.”
“Things are changing fast,” Adams added, saying that January would likely “be a month of transition one way or the other.” He plans to keep working, to follow the news and to use his podcast and social media to comment on American and international politics “for as long as it makes sense.” He said he likes to stay engaged, even though he knows he “has much bigger problems.”
Adams’ revelation comes two months after he publicly appealed to President Donald Trump for help in getting his health care provider, Kaiser of Northern California, to schedule an appointment so that he can receive life-extending treatment for metastasized prostate cancer. The East Bay-based author later opined that Trump was the “best president ever” because he had taken time away from running the country and “a part of the world” to help him get his appointment.
But Adams reported another setback last month when he revealed that he had become “paralyzed below the waist” due to a tumor that had grown around his spine, the New York Post reported. At the time, he said he hoped radiation would help him regain strength in his legs. However, on Thursday, Adams said he was still no feeling in his legs and no chance of getting it back. Of most concern, he said, was that he was experiencing heart failure, which made it difficult for him to breath during the day, especially if he had a coughing fit.
“At the moment I can breathe and I’m not in any pain,” Adams said. He explained that he’s open to using painkillers if he needs them and is at the stage in his disease when “there’s no real limit to what I can take.” He added” “I’ll probably smoke massive amounts of marijuana because it actually puts me into a kind of a stupor while feels kind of good.”
In May, Adams announced he had the same kind of aggressive prostate cancer as former President Joe Biden, a day after Biden shared his diagnosis publicly. Adams also said that his disease — like Biden’s — has metastasized to his bones and that he thought he might be dead by summer. At that time, he said the disease had already become intolerable. “I can tell you I don’t have good days,” he said.
“I’m in pain, and I’m always in pain, and the pain moves around to different parts of my body,” Adams continued. “I’ve been using a walker or months now.” However, he said, he remains tough mentally. “The mental part, you know, I got that under control.”
In acknowledging his grim prognosis, Adams also said he could reach a point where he would take advantage of California’s End of Life Option Act (EOLOA), which allows terminally ill adults with a life expectancy of six months or less to end their life with a medication prescribed by a physician.
Adams created “Dilbert,” a popular comic strip which sends up office culture, in 1989. At its peak, his comic strip was one of the most popular in the country and appeared in more than 2,000 newspapers at its peak. But it was was dropped by hundreds of newspapers in 2023 after he called Black Americans a “hate group” and said that white people should “just get the hell away” from them. He later defended his remarks.