In March 2006, Messner appeared again on "Larry King Live" and said she was continuing to suffer from lung cancer, which had reached stage 4, and that she was continuing to receive treatment for it. She also mentioned having difficulty swallowing food, suffering from panic attacks, and enduring substantial weight loss. As her health continued to worsen, a "Talk of the Town" article in an October 2006, issue of "The New Yorker" stated that she was dying in hospice care, and a December 2006 article in Walter Scott's column in "Parade" reported that her son Jay was "at a North Carolina hospice with his mom, is gravely ill with colon cancer".