Remembering DJ Casper: Understanding Kidney Cancer

The news

Willie Perry Jr. — known everywhere as DJ Casper, the Chicago DJ whose "Cha Cha Slide" has filled wedding and party dance floors since 2000 — died on August 7, 2023, at the age of 58. His wife confirmed his death to Chicago media after a seven-year experience with cancer.

Casper spoke about his illness openly. He publicly shared that he was diagnosed in 2016 with two cancers, kidney cancer and neuroendocrine cancer, and in interviews he described how the disease affected his kidney and liver and made everyday things, like eating, difficult. He kept performing and kept his signature optimism in public until near the end of his life.

Why people are talking about it

Few songs have brought more strangers onto a dance floor than the "Cha Cha Slide." When its creator died, tributes came from everywhere — including a crowd doing the dance at his funeral. His openness about a years-long cancer experience also gave many fans their first introduction to kidney cancer, and to what it means to live with cancer over a long stretch of time.

What this cancer means

According to the National Cancer Institute, kidney cancer can develop in adults and children, and its main types are renal cell cancer, transitional cell cancer, and Wilms tumor (a childhood cancer). NCI also notes that certain inherited conditions can increase the risk of kidney cancer.

Casper publicly described cancer involving more than one organ. NCI explains that when cancer spreads from where it started to another part of the body, it is called metastatic cancer — and it keeps the name of the place it began. Cancer cells that travel are still the original cancer, which shapes how doctors diagnose and treat it. The precise details of Casper's diagnoses beyond what he shared are private, and general facts here shouldn't be read as a description of his case.

Awareness, screening & prevention

Straight honesty from the source: NCI states that it does not have evidence-based information about screening for kidney cancer, nor about preventing it. There is no routine kidney cancer screening test for people at average risk.

That makes two ordinary habits more valuable. First, don't sit on persistent symptoms — bring lasting, unexplained changes in your body to a healthcare professional. Second, keep up with the cancer screenings that do exist; our free screening check-up tool can show which screenings are generally recommended at your age. People with inherited kidney cancer syndromes in the family, which NCI describes, should mention that history to a doctor directly.

Common questions

What is neuroendocrine cancer? Casper publicly named it as one of his diagnoses. Neuroendocrine cancers arise from hormone-making cells found in various organs; NCI publishes detailed information on specific types. Which type he had was not publicly specified, so we won't guess.

Is there a test to catch kidney cancer early? Not routinely — NCI has no evidence-based screening recommendation for kidney cancer. Some kidney cancers are found when imaging is done for other reasons.

How could he live seven years with it? Every person's course is different, shaped by the cancers involved and their treatment. Long stretches of living — and working, and performing — with cancer are part of many people's real experience.

Questions to ask a healthcare team

• Are there symptoms, like blood in the urine or persistent side or back pain, I should never ignore?
• Does kidney cancer or an inherited syndrome in my family change my risk?
• If a kidney tumor were found, how would you determine what type it is?
• What does it mean if cancer is found in more than one organ?