Managing Anxiety and Fear While Living with Cancer
- Theo Burrell, 37, an antiques specialist known for the auction house reality show Antiques Roadshow, is getting candid about the fear she feels while living with glioblastoma, an aggressive, incurable brain cancer.
- The Scottish mom, whose son was just 21 months old when she was diagnosed at age 25, says she lives scan to scan and is facing the fact that she may not be able to see her son reach certain milestones.
- The average survival rate of glioblastoma is 15 months with treatment and less than six years if left untreated. While there is a five-year survival rate averaging 6 percent, those individuals will never be cancer-free. They must continue receiving radiation and chemotherapy for the rest of their lives.
- Ongoing clinical trials are showing promise for brain cancer patients. In March, results in a phase 1 clinical trial published in The New England Journal of Medicine found three patients who saw major reductions in their GBM brain tumors, and one of them saw her tumor experience “near-complete tumor regression.”
“I live scan to scan, as most people in my situation do,” the Scottish mom, 37, explained in an STV News interview clip posted to Instagram for Brain Tumour Research.
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“Especially as a mom. I took for granted that I would see my son become a man. That feels that it has actually been taken away from me. I hope it hasn’t, but yeah, I’m up against quite severe stats.”
In 2022 when she found out about her cancer, her son Jonah was just 21 months old.
Burrell’s Cancer Journey
“Receiving my diagnosis, at the age of 35, when my son was one year old, was devastating,” Burrell previously told UK-based news outlet The Sun.
In Antiques Roadshow, Burrell is among a team of experts on the British version of the popular television show surrounding auction houses. She joined the show in 2018 and toured throughout the UK, valuing various treasures and trinkets.
Understandably, Burrell’s life then changed in a flash after her diagnosis four years later.
“Overnight, everything had changed. Suddenly, I’d gone from being a healthy person in the middle of my life with a new baby to having incurable cancer with maybe only a year or two left to live,” Burrell said in an Instagram post.
After learning about her diagnosis, which came after a CT scan and six months of symptoms such as headaches, vision problems and general sickness, Burrell explained that she immediately underwent surgery to remove the 5 cm tumor. She also had chemotherapy and radiation.
“I’ve lost my hair, I’m no longer allowed to drive, and no longer able to work,” Burrell continued.
“What followed was months of surgery and treatment to try and prolong my life, and … I continue to make the best of each day,” Burrell added, saying she’s “doing quite well.”
In the meantime, she has become a brain cancer advocate and overall, despite the fear that tends to set in, chooses to focus on the positive.
How To Manage Anxiety During High-Stress Periods
How can you manage your anxiety and fear while living with cancer?
Dr. Marianna Strongin, a clinical psychologist and founder of Strong In Therapy, has been helping the SurvivorNet community by sharing coping mechanisms and a structured way to think about handling these periods of anxiety and fear.
“The way that I define anxiety is that it’s an internal question that we simply can’t find the answers to,” Dr. Strongin previously told SurvivorNet.
A guided meditation for the SurvivorNet community
Dr. Strongin says that one of the main causes of anxiety is uncertainty about life, and a cancer battle can fuel anxiety for individuals because of the lack of uncertainty about the future.
Many people will turn to media platforms for answers, but Dr. Strongin says that individuals often end up with more questions as a result which leads to more anxiety.
The first step for coping during stressful circumstances is understanding one’s anxiety. To do this, Dr. Strongin suggests checking in with oneself everyday to see where the anxiety is manifesting and what questions are causing the anxiety. From there, it’s important to answer those questions and reassure yourself with positivity.
Understanding Glioblastoma Tumors
Glioblastoma is considered a central nervous system (CNS) tumor. Burrell’s tumor is grade 4, which means her brain tumor “grows and spreads very quickly,” according to the National Cancer Institute.
The NCI explains that the average survival rate is 15 months with treatment and less than six if left untreated. While there is a five-year survival rate averaging 6 percent, those individuals will never be cancer-free. They must continue receiving radiation and chemotherapy for the rest of their lives.
Glioblastomas are tricky to treat and manage because their cells are heterogeneous, meaning that each one must be individually targeted to slow tumor growth. Surgery cannot remove all the cancer because the tumor burrows into the brain, so the tumor starts to grow again immediately after surgery.
Glioblastoma risk factors can include:
- Prior radiation exposure
- Gender: men are more likely to get glioblastoma than women
- Age: people 50 years or older
- Certain genetic syndromes, including neurofibromatosis, tuberous sclerosis, von Hippel-Lindau disease
Symptoms for glioblastoma can vary depending on the area of the brain where the tumor begins and spreads and its growth rate, according to MD Anderson Cancer Center. But common symptoms of glioblastoma can include:
- Headaches
- Seizures
- Changes in mental function, mood, or personality
- Changes in speech
- Sensory changes in hearing, smell, and sight
- Loss of balance
- Changes in your pulse and breathing rate
Current Options to Treat Glioblastoma
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved some drug treatments, including temozolomide (Temodar), to help patients living with this aggressive disease.
Temozolomide is a chemotherapy drug patients can take after surgery and radiation therapy.
Dr. Daniel Wahl, professor of radiation and oncology at the University of Michigan, explained that the oral drug ” slows down tumor growth.”
“Patients with GBM have effective treatment options; there are four of them: surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and tumor targeting fields. These are electric fields that we can use to treat these cancers,” Dr. Wahl said.
Other FDA-approved drugs for treating glioblastoma include lomustine (Gleostine), intravenous carmustine (Bicnu), carmustine wafer implants, and Avastin (bevacizumab).
Avastin is a targeted drug therapy that blocks glioblastoma cells from requesting new blood vessels that feed and allow the tumor to grow.
“Outcomes for these patients are still suboptimal. What I tell my patients is that we have these effective treatments, but what they do is they delay the time to when this tumor comes back. Only in exceptional circumstances would we ever talk about getting rid of one of these cancers a few,” Dr. Wahl said.
WATCH: Using electric sources to improve glioblastoma treatment.
Fortunately, research is ongoing to improve the prognosis for people battling glioblastoma. One area of promise is tumor-treating fields, which can help extend patients’ lives by two years on average, giving them hope.
Optune, the brand name for the tumor-treating field delivery device, was launched in 2011 and approved by the FDA in 2015. It is a wearable and portable device for glioblastoma treatment for adult patients aged 22 years or older.
“There’s been a very exciting development of tumor treating fields, which are electrical fields that have been applied to the brain,” Dr. Suriya Jeyapalan, a neurologist at Tufts Medical Center, previously told Survivor Net.
TTFields use low-intensity electric fields to disrupt the cell division process, making it harder for cancerous cells to multiply.
Questions for Your Doctor
If you have been diagnosed with glioblastoma, here are some questions you may consider asking your doctor:
- What stage is my brain cancer?
- What are the treatment options for my brain cancer?
- Am I a good candidate for temozolomide?
- Am I a good candidate for Optune?
- What are the risks and benefits of the recommended treatment?
- What are the side effects of the recommended treatment?
- How long will it take to recover from treatment, and will I be able to return to work and normal activities?
- What’s the likelihood that insurance will cover the recommended treatment
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