Babe Ruth died from cancer, specifically a type of throat cancer now understood to have been nasopharyngeal carcinoma, on August 16, 1948, at the age of 53.

Quick Scoop: How Did Babe Ruth Die?

  • Babe Ruth began experiencing hoarseness, pain near his left eye, and trouble swallowing in 1946, which doctors eventually linked to an inoperable malignant tumor at the base of his skull and in his neck.
  • At the time, this was widely reported as “throat cancer,” and later medical reviews clarified it as nasopharyngeal carcinoma, a cancer that starts in the tissue connecting the back of the nose and mouth.
  • He died in New York City on August 16, 1948, with pneumonia and complications from the cancer and swallowing problems contributing to his death.

What Exactly Was The Illness?

  • Early on, doctors misdiagnosed Ruth’s symptoms as sinus trouble and infected teeth, even pulling several of his teeth before realizing there was a tumor.
  • Later analysis of his records shows the cancer had spread from his nasopharynx into his neck and beyond, damaging nerves involved in speaking and swallowing.

Treatment And Medical Firsts

  • Ruth received surgery, hormone therapy, and a then-experimental program of combined radiation and chemotherapy, making him one of the earliest high-profile patients to get such treatment.
  • Although the treatments could not cure him, they temporarily shrank the tumors and extended his life, and his case helped shape later cancer-treatment approaches.

How People Remembered His Death

  • Newspapers across the United States and abroad ran front-page headlines announcing that Babe Ruth had died of throat cancer, reflecting how the diagnosis was understood at the time.
  • Hundreds of thousands of fans lined up at Yankee Stadium and in New York City to pay their respects as his body lay in repose and during his funeral.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.