Busy Philipps' Tumor Found Despite MD's Dismissal

Actress Busy Philipps says a scan her doctor dismissed revealed a rare brain tumor, prompting two.

Actress Busy Philipps, 47, revealed she was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor in February after undergoing a Prenuvo full-body MRI scan — a scan her primary care doctor had told her she did not need. But she followed her instinct, telling People magazine: "I didn't know why I wanted to get this scan except for the fact that I just did." The scan revealed a lesion on her brain, leading to a follow-up MRI and the diagnosis of a grade 2 oligodendroglioma.

Philipps underwent a five-hour surgery on March 2 at NYU Langone to remove a 2.6-centimeter mass from her brain. Her neuro-oncologist, Dr. Alexandra Miller, told People that oligodendroglioma affects approximately 1,100 to 1,300 people per year in the U.S. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Miller described the tumor as "considered malignant, but it has the best prognosis of all of the malignant gliomas." The Guardian reports Philipps had no obvious symptoms such as seizures, and she described the ordeal as "the weirdest six months of my life."

In April, Philipps faced a setback when her dermatologist noticed her surgical incision looked concerning during a Botox appointment. Fox News and The Hollywood Reporter report that she had contracted a staphylococcus infection at the incision site, requiring a second debridement surgery. According to HOLA, the procedure removed one of the small titanium tacks that had been used to secure bone in her skull during the first operation. Philipps told People: "The second surgery really threw me. I just felt like I was back to square one, and I was really, really upset."

RadarOnline reports that Birdie was "beside herself and really, really scared," while Philipps reassured her: "Birdie, you're just not in the movie where your mom dies your senior year of high school." According to HOLA, Philipps told the creators of her new CBS legal drama "Cupertino" about her diagnosis and received their support. She began filming roughly four and a half weeks after her first surgery, as reported by the Daily Mail.

Philipps said that for two years she had been telling friends her "brain feels broken," according to The Guardian. She had assumed certain behavioral and emotional changes were caused by perimenopause. According to the Daily Mail, her close friend and Dawson's Creek co-star Michelle Williams pointed out that Philipps had been saying this repeatedly. Philipps reflected: "I wasn't consciously aware that anything was really wrong, but there was something that was misfiring. My brain does not feel broken anymore." Her doctors could not confirm whether the tumor caused these changes.

Philipps does not need chemotherapy or radiation but will receive regular scans to monitor for recurrence, as reported by Health and Me. Her neurosurgeon, Dr. John Golfinos, told People that early detection made the surgery significantly easier and that had the tumor been found later, it would have been two to three times the size. Philipps hopes her story encourages others to seek information. Fox News quotes her: "We are frequently told by doctors that there is nothing to worry about [when] you kind of know that there's something to worry about. There's nothing to be afraid of in having information. It's only empowering."