( CNN ) -- `` Valerie Harper is facing a devastating diagnosis : terminal brain cancer , '' a People cover story from March started . `` Her doctors say she has as little as three months left to live . '' Then in August , the actress ' doctor told the `` Today '' show that Harper was `` pretty close to remission . '' The media took it from there . Yet after Harper was named a contestant on `` Dancing With the Stars '' on Wednesday , she made a few clarifications . `` I have lung cancer , '' she told CNN . `` It is situated in the lining of the brain . It 's not even in the brain . '' And `` my lung cancer doctor says , 'Valerie , we do n't even use remission . ' `` Call it confusion over medical jargon . Call it sensationalizing . Call it miscommunication . Whatever it is , it 's an illustration of how much the term `` cancer '' confuses everyone . `` I see a lot of people with 'brain cancer ' who actually have ... lung cancer , or breast cancer or some other cancer ( that spread ) to the brain , '' said Dr. Otis Brawley , chief medical and scientific officer for the American Cancer Society . `` We treat the cancer according to its origin . '' In other words , doctors treat prostate cancer that has spread to a patient 's bones differently than they would treat bone cancer . Harper rose to fame playing Rhoda Morgenstern on `` The Mary Tyler Moore Show '' and its spinoff `` Rhoda . '' In 2009 , she was diagnosed with a non-small cell lung cancer . Doctors removed the tumor and told Harper the cancer had not spread to other parts of her body . Then in January , Harper spent a week in the hospital after falling ill during a play rehearsal . `` The side of my face started to feel kind of numb . I was slurring my speech , '' Harper told The New Yorker . Doctors ruled out a stroke and continued to do more tests . Shortly after , Harper was diagnosed with leptomeningeal carcinomatosis , also called cerebral carcinomatosis . The cancer cells from her lungs had spread to the meninges , which is three layers of tissue that protect the central nervous system . Think of it like a bag that contains the brain , spinal cord and spinal fluid . This metastasis happens in about 3 % to 5 % of non-small cell lung cancer patients , Brawley said . `` It is like little grains of rice sprinkled on the surface of the meninges when seen ( during an ) autopsy , '' he said . `` It is diagnosed in life with a spinal tap , and you find cancer cells in the spinal fluid . '' It 's rare that someone does well with leptomeningeal carcinomatosis , Brawley said , which may explain why Harper 's doctor said her current health `` defies the odds . '' But most outlets did n't publish the doctor 's following quote from the `` Today '' piece : `` The problem is that at any time this can change . '' The treatment that Harper has undergone -- most likely chemotherapy administered through a spinal port , Brawley said -- reportedly is working to slow the disease . But these cancer cells are adaptable and will develop resistance to the treatment . So short of a miracle , complete remission is n't in Harper 's future . As the actress said , `` It 's not a matter of if , but when . '' Valerie Harper hopes you dance , too .
Valerie Harper 's lung cancer spread to the membrane system around her brain . She died on July 22, 2012 at age of 69. Expert : Treatment reportedly is working to slow the disease , but cancer will continue to spread .