How did Steve McQueen die?
McQueen died at the age of 50, on November 7, 1980, in Juárez, Mexico of a heart attack following surgery to remove or reduce a metastatic tumour in his liver. He had been diagnosed with mesothelioma in December 1979, and had travelled to Mexico in July 1980 for unconventional treatment after his doctors advised him that they could do nothing more to prolong his life. Controversy arose over McQueen’s Mexican trip, because McQueen sought a very non-traditional treatment that used coffee enemas and laetrile, a supposedly “natural” anti-cancer drug available in Mexico but not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer caused by asbestos exposure. It is unclear whether the asbestos exposure came from his racing career or from an experience in the United States Marine Corps; he wore an asbestos-insulated racers suit in his race cars and when working on his own cars and motorbikes would use an asbestos soaked rag to cover his mouth from other fum