Olivia Williams Health Update: Living with Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Cancer
Current Health Status
Olivia Williams, the 56-year-old British actress known for her roles in “The Crown” and “The Sixth Sense,” has revealed that she will never be cancer-free due to a late diagnosis of a rare form of pancreatic cancer. In recent interviews published in April 2025, she has shared significant updates about her health condition and ongoing treatment.
Williams was diagnosed in 2018 with a rare pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor (PancNET), specifically a VIPoma (vasoactive intestinal polypeptide carcinoma). While she initially underwent surgery, including a distal pancreatectomy and splenectomy, to remove the primary tumor, the cancer had already spread to other parts of her body by the time it was discovered.
Current Treatment
Williams is currently undergoing targeted internal radiotherapy treatment with Lutathera at King’s College Hospital in London. As she described it, “I go to a room in King’s College Hospital, and people in hazmat suits come in with a lead box of radioactive material, which they inject into me, and I become radioactive.”
This Lutathera treatment is a form of Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy (PRRT) specifically designed to target neuroendocrine tumors. She has undergone four rounds of this treatment, which makes her temporarily radioactive and requires her to isolate at her family’s cottage in the countryside during treatment periods
The treatment is expected to give her “maybe a year, maybe two or three years, of freedom from treatment.” However, she noted that “in the best-case scenario it would have made [the metastases] disappear, but that didn’t happen.”
Ongoing Challenges
Williams has been candid about the challenges she faces with her diagnosis. She described the emotional rollercoaster of her treatment journey: “I go in like a puppy with this optimistic, bright face and then they give me bad news and it’s like, ‘Oh my God, I fell for it again.'”
She has also shared that new metastases have been found “pretty well either just before Christmas or in the middle of a summer holiday” for three years in a row. Some of these tumors were located too close to major blood vessels to treat directly, resulting in periods where doctors had to simply monitor their growth, which she described as “a horrible feeling.”
Delayed Diagnosis
A significant part of Williams’ story is the four-year delay in her diagnosis, during which she visited doctors approximately 21 times with symptoms. She was repeatedly misdiagnosed with conditions including menopause and irritable bowel syndrome, and at one point was even referred for psychiatric assessment.
Williams has expressed frustration about this delay: “If someone had f—ing well diagnosed me in the four years I’d been saying I was ill… then one operation possibly could have cleared the whole thing, and I could describe myself as cancer-free, which I cannot now ever be.”
Advocacy Work
Despite her health challenges, Williams has become a prominent advocate for pancreatic cancer awareness and early detection. She has served as an ambassador for Pancreatic Cancer UK since 2019.
She is particularly passionate about developing early detection methods, stating, “I’m not looking for sympathy; I’m looking for a cheap, early test.” The test she advocates for could be “as simple as breathing into a bag at your general practitioner.”
The breath test she references is currently being developed by Pancreatic Cancer UK and Imperial College London. Known as the VAPOR study, this test would work similarly to a breathalyzer and detect chemicals called volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released in the breath that could indicate pancreatic cancer.
Williams is also supporting Pancreatic Cancer UK as the London Marathon’s charity of the year, noting, “It’s too late for me and for all these people who are running in the marathon who’ve lost a parent or friend who could have been saved by a pancreatectomy if the cancer had been found before it spread.”
Professional Life
Despite her health problems, Williams has kept acting. She recently appeared in HBO’s Dune: Prophecy and also performed in the National Theatre’s play Tartuffe.
She says she lives in “a beautiful state of denial,” which helps her keep working and enjoy life while dealing with her cancer.
Prognosis and Outlook
While Williams has been clear that she will never be completely cancer-free, the type of cancer she has (pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor/VIPoma) generally has a better prognosis than the more common pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Medical literature indicates that VIPomas have a median survival of approximately 8 years, though this depends on tumor grade, stage, and resectability.
With her ongoing Lutathera treatments, Williams is hoping to gain additional years of freedom from intensive treatment, though she understands the limitations of her current medical options.
Despite the seriousness of her condition, Williams maintains a determined outlook and continues to advocate for improvements in early detection that could help others avoid the late diagnosis she experienced.
