Deciding Whether to Keep Diagnosis Private or Share
- “Golden Bachelorette” suitor Michael Stevens, a 65-year-old dad of two and retired banking CEO, has revealed he privately battled cancer prior to joining the reality TV dating show.
- Some people battling a disease or cancer are willing to open up about their experiences as much as they can, while others prefer to keep it to themselves. SurvivorNet experts say both approaches and everything in between are valid. Possible reasons why cancer patients may choose to keep their diagnosis private are to maintain a sense of privacy and control and avoid pity, stigma, and discrimination.
- Patients may also be motivated to keep their diagnoses private because they want to reclaim a sense of normalcy and protect their loved ones. If you find yourself wrestling with your emotions because of a diagnosis, remember you don’t have to go it alone. Your support group filled with loved ones are there to help you on your journey.
- Although it’s unclear what type of cancer Michael Stevens caught early, we do know that 61-year-old TV personality Joan Vassos, the star of the “Golden Bachelorette” lost her husband to pancreatic cancer three years ago.
- Pancreatic cancer is an aggressive disease that is difficult to detect because symptoms, including jaundice and weight loss, typically present at a later stage in the cancer’s development. In a previous interview with SurvivorNet, Dr. Anirban Maitra, the co-leader of the Pancreatic Cancer Moon Shot at MD Anderson Cancer Center, explains what he typically sees when patients develop this disease.
Although Stevens didn’t disclose the type of cancer he battled, did not that he “caught it early” and is doing ok now. He also is grateful for going through with his participation on the show as he was initially hesitant to do so after learning of his diagnosis.
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He continued, “What could have been a really lousy, difficult year for me instead was kind of a great one, because I got this amazing experience tucked into it.”
Stevens then added that he is “going to be fine” since the undisclosed disease “was caught early.”
We’re delighted to hear that Stevens was able to move forward with this new dating show adventure despite having been faced with a cancer journey—something that can offer inspiration to other cancer warriors to continue doing what they love despite battling a disease.
Meanwhile, Stevens wasn’t the only person on the show affected by cancer. The 61-year-old star of the show Joan Vassos, and the first-ever Golden Bachelorette, tragically lost her husband to pancreatic cancer three years.
The Maryland-native and her late husband John had been married for 32 years at the time of his passing in 2021.
As for how she’s been grieving the loss of her husband, she told Entertainment Tonight earlier this year, “I feel like he maybe had a little hand in me actually getting here, honestly.
“He told me right before he passed away, ‘You need to go out and find somebody else. You were the best wife in the world and I want you to be happy.’ He gave me this wonderful gift before he died, and he said go and do something, and so here I am.”
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In another interview with CNN, Vassos explained, “I did not want to spend my life alone, so I knew that I had to take action, but my heart wasn’t there at all.
“I was saying to my friend, ‘How in the world do you date now? Look around this restaurant. Everybody here is a couple. Everybody my age is married. All my friends are married.'”
She recounted, when she got home that same day, she noticed the “Golden Bachelor” casting on TV, explaining, “I was like, ‘The universe is talking to me.'”
In honor of Vassos’ late husband, “Golden Bachelorette” host Jesse Palmer said on the “Men Tell All” episode that ABC would be donating to Stand Up to Cancer for anyone on the show affected by cancer, whether it be themselves or one of their loved ones or friends.
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When Is It Okay to Share Your Diagnosis?
Some people battling a disease or cancer are open to sharing their experiences as much as they can, while others prefer to keep it to themselves or close loved ones. SurvivorNet experts say both approaches and everything in between, are valid.
“Patients who have just been diagnosed with cancer sometimes wonder how they are going to handle the diagnosis of the cancer in social situations,” psychiatrist Dr. Lori Plutchik explains.
Helping Patients Cope with a Cancer Diagnosis
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- ‘Be Patient With Your Emotions’: A Social Worker’s Insights Into Handling a Cancer Diagnosis
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Asking questions like “How much information should they share and with whom should they share the information?” are things Plutchik says patients take into consideration.
Dr. Plutchik adds, “There is no one right way to handle this diagnosis. People should do what feels right to them.”
A cancer journey can last months to years, which means cancer warriors may be experiencing a lot of uncertainty until they fully understand where their health stands. This uncertainty can influence when a cancer patient is ready to share their diagnosis, Dr. Plutchik further explained.
Dr. Plutchik stresses that those close to a person going through cancer should be respectful of their wishes when it comes to disclosing their diagnosis and seeking support.
Adjusting to Life After a Diagnosis
A cancer diagnosis will undoubtedly upend your life in some form, but learning to cope with the onset of changes can make the adjustment easier to bear. You may notice your emotions and feelings fluctuating, ranging from high anxiety to depression. Experiencing a range of emotions and feelings is completely normal.
Dr. Plutchik says your emotions are likely to be fluid in the first few days, weeks, and possibly even months after a diagnosis.
Cancer patients are encouraged to build a support system of people they trust to help manage these emotions during this sensitive period. Mental health professionals are also very helpful in managing emotions during the cancer journey.
Cancer and treatment can have an impact on your physical appearance. Chemotherapy, for example, often causes hair loss, which can drastically alter how you view yourself.
Licensed clinical psychologist Dr. Marianna Strongin explained to SurvivorNet, “Cancer changes who you are both physically and emotionally.”
Flourish a story of empowerment, strength, & yoga
A study published in Frontiers in Psychology questioned how self-esteem should be considered in cancer patients. Researchers noted cancer patients’ framing of their diagnosis and how they cope with their diagnosis and subsequent treatment impacts their self-esteem throughout their cancer journeys.
“Adaptive adjustment strategies (positive reframing, use of emotional support, active coping, acceptance, and planning) in breast cancer patients were associated with high self-esteem. Social support also appears to be strongly related to self-esteem,” the study says.
Dr. Strongin suggests looking at the part or parts of your body impacted by the cancer or cancer treatment to help you cope with body changes. She recommends creating a regular practice of accepting your body image because it enables you to accept your cancer journey emotionally and physically.
“As you allow yourself to spend more time looking at all of you, you will begin having a new relationship with your body. It may not happen immediately, but you can start honoring and thanking your new body with time.
“Just because the treatment is behind you, the emotional recovery can take longer,” Dr. Strongin adds.
If you find yourself wrestling with your emotions because of a diagnosis, remember you don’t have to go it alone. Your support group is filled with loved ones who are there to help you on your journey.
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Learning about Pancreatic Cancer
Although it’s unclear what type of cancer Michael Stevens caught early, we do know that 61-year-old TV personality Joan Vassos, the star of the “Golden Bachelorette” lost her husband to pancreatic cancer three years ago.
Pancreatic cancer is an aggressive disease that is difficult to detect because symptoms, including jaundice and weight loss, typically present at a later stage in the cancer’s development. In a previous interview with SurvivorNet, Dr. Anirban Maitra, the co-leader of the Pancreatic Cancer Moon Shot at MD Anderson Cancer Center, explains what he typically sees when patients develop this disease.
“Because the pancreas is inside the abdomen often doesn’t have symptoms that would tell you that something is wrong with your pancreas,” he says. “By the time individuals walk into the clinic with symptoms like jaundice, weight loss, back pain or diabetes, it’s often very late in the stage of the disease.”
Detecting Pancreatic Cancer Early Is Crucial
Parents, siblings and children of someone with pancreatic cancer are considered high risk for developing the disease because they are first-degree relatives of the individual. PGVs (pathogenic germline variants) are changes in reproductive cells (sperm or egg) that become part of the DNA in the cells of the offspring. Germline variants are passed from parents to their children, and are associated with increased risks of several cancer types, including pancreatic, ovarian and breast cancers. Germline mutations in ATM, BRCA1, BRCA2, CKDN2A, PALB2, PRSS1, STK11 and TP53 are associated with increased risk of pancreatic cancer.
Jessica Everett, a genetic counselor at NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center, encourages people in this category to look into possible screening options.
“If you’re concerned about pancreatic cancer in your family, start by talking to a genetic counselor to learn more about your risk and what options you have,” Everett said.
Additionally, note that up to ten percent of pancreatic cancer cases are caused by inherited genetic syndromes. So, if two or more members of your family have had pancreatic cancer, or if you have pancreatic cysts, it’s worth asking your doctor to check for pancreatic cancer since you’re at high risk.
Progress in Pancreatic Cancer
Progress has been made over the last few years in the world of pancreatic cancer treatments. One clinical trial recently found that the drug Onivyde, in combination with chemotherapy in the so-called Nalirifox regimen, helped patients live longer compared with chemotherapy in previously untreated patients with metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (mPDAC), according to Ipsen, the pharmaceutical company that bought the drug.
“The prognosis for people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer is extremely poor and we plan to submit these new findings to the regulatory authority as, if approved, we believe this regimen could offer up an important new treatment option for people living with an aggressive and hard-to-treat cancer,” Howard Mayer, Executive Vice President and Head of Research and Development for Ipsen, said. “We thank the patients who participated in the study, their families and their healthcare teams.”
The drug is currently approved in the U.S., Europe, and Asia in combination with fluorouracil and leucovorin as a treatment for mPDAC after disease progression and following gemcitabine-based therapy.
According to the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Facts & Figures 2024, the five-year relative survival rate for pancreatic cancer [for all stages], which develops in the pancreas and is known as the “silent disease,” is estimated to be 13%, a number experts with the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN) previously said is more than double the rate from 10 years ago, which was approximately 6%.
Meanwhile, a study recently published in the journal Nature Materials and titled “Engineered matrices reveal stiffness-mediated chemoresistance in patient-derived pancreatic cancer organoids,” says that targeting drugs in the microenvironment around a tumor can assist in how patients react to treatment.
Another example of progress being made comes in the form of immunotherapy, a type of cancer treatment that uses your own immune system to fight cancer.
“Up until now, immunotherapy hasn’t had a big role,” Dr. Allyson Ocean, a medical oncologist at Weill Cornell Medical Center, previously told SurvivorNet.
Dr. Allyson Ocean explains why pancreatic cancer is so hard to treat.
A clinical trial led by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and sponsored by the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, found “combination of chemotherapy with an immunotherapy meant to unleash the anticancer capacity of the immune system was effective against one of the hardest targets in cancer care, pancreatic cancer,” said Penn Medicine.
“The researchers found that in 34 patients with advanced pancreatic cancer randomized to receive the immunotherapy nivolumab with two chemotherapy drugs, nab-paclitaxel and gemcitabine, had a one-year survival rate of 57.7 percent, significantly greater than the historical average of 35 percent with chemotherapy alone,” the institution said.
Dr. Benjamin Musher, the director of medical oncology at the Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center, recently said there were currently multiple “home-grown clinical trials testing novel immunotherapies in all stages of pancreatic cancer studies underway at Baylor St. Luke’s.” But only about 5 percent of patients with pancreatic cancer participate in such studies.
“We know that we are not going to improve outcomes without more patients enrolling,” Musher said.
In addition, there are immunotherapy clinical trial innovations being made to allow for multiple immunotherapeutic approaches to be tested and compared to one or several standard-of-care options within trials. In other words, “investigational treatments can be added or dropped from the trial over time, depending on preclinical and clinical evidence.”
“We’re encouraged by the trend toward more innovative clinical trial designs to improve the drug development process and ultimately lead to better patient outcomes,” PanCAN Chief Science Officer Lynn Matrisian said in a recent article from the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.
Clinical trials, in general, are research studies that compare the most effective known treatment for a specific type or stage of a disease with a new approach.
Dr. Beth Karlan, a gynecologic oncologist with UCLA Health, previously told SurvivorNet that clinical trials can play an important role for some patients’ treatment, but they also serve a larger purpose.
“Clinical trials hopefully can benefit you, but it’s also providing very, very vital information to the whole scientific community about the effectiveness of these treatments,” Dr. Karlan said. “We need everyone to be partners with us if we’re ever going to truly cure cancer or prevent people from having to die from cancer.”
That being said, there is no guarantee you’ll receive more effective treatment than the standard of care, and clinical trials certainly aren’t right for everyone. You should always talk with your doctor(s) before getting involved in one. Some risks to consider are:
- The risk of harm and/or side effects due to experimental treatments
- Researchers may be unaware of some potential side effects for experimental treatments
- The treatment may not work for you, even if it has worked for others
But if you’ve already decided that a clinical trial is right for you or you’re just beginning to explore your treatment options, you should know that SurvivorNet has a tool for you. The SurvivorNet Clinical Trial Finder: an A.I. driven tool for patients to find clinical trial options for treatment.
The tool is built on top of clinicaltrials.gov, a database maintained by the U.S. government that compiles privately and publicly funded clinical trials conducted around the world, and gives access to more than 100,000+ individual clinical trials, updated daily.
“Clinical trials are critical to the development of new therapies, and as we live through this extraordinary revolution in genomics, immunotherapy and targeted therapy, it’s clear that one of the most pressing needs for patients, clinical trials sponsors, and researchers is simply a better way to find patients,” SurvivorNet CEO Steve Alperin said.
“Even one percent more people successfully enrolled in clinical trials can change the world.”
Contributing: SurvivorNet Staff
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