‘Love at First Sight,’ Says Actor & Lymphoma Survivor Jeff Bridges of His Wife of 45 Years

Bridges doesn’t just love his wife Susan he admires her, too. “I respect her wisdom,” he says.

The lovely pair met in 1974 when Susan was a 20-year-old roadhouse waitress who was working on a ranch in Montana, reports The Daily Mail. Bridges happened to be there, too, in Paradise Valley, Montana, because he was filming Rancho Deluxe, a 1975 neo-western film directed by Frank Perry.

Jeff Bridges' Lymphoma Battle

Jeff Bridges shared his cancer diagnosis with the world in October 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, on social media. He announced the diagnosis, writing, "I have a great team of doctors, and the prognosis is good."

Bridges treated his lymphoma with chemotherapy and regularly kept fans updated throughout his cancer journey with a colorful online journal and on social media. Lymphoma treatments can include, says the Mayo Clinic:

• Active surveillance. Some forms of lymphoma are very slow growing. You and your doctor may decide to wait to treat your lymphoma when it causes signs and symptoms that interfere with your daily activities. Until then, you may undergo periodic tests to monitor your condition.
• Chemotherapy. Chemotherapy uses drugs to destroy fast-growing cells, such as cancer cells. The drugs are usually administered through a vein, but can also be taken as a pill, depending on the specific drugs you receive.
• Radiation therapy. Radiation therapy uses high-powered beams of energy, such as X-rays and protons, to kill cancer cells.
• Bone marrow transplant. A bone marrow transplant, also known as a stem cell transplant, involves using high doses of chemotherapy and radiation to suppress your bone marrow. Then healthy bone marrow stem cells from your body or from a donor are infused into your blood where they travel to your bones and rebuild your bone marrow.
• Other treatments. Other drugs used to treat lymphoma include targeted drugs that focus on specific abnormalities in your cancer cells. Immunotherapy drugs use your immune system to kill cancer cells. A specialized treatment called chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy takes your body’s germ-fighting T cells, engineers them to fight cancer and infuses them back into your body.

In September 2021, the actor shared on his blog that he’d entered remission. He shared that "the 9" x 12" mass has shrunk down to the size of a marble.” Bridges also suffered after contracting Covid in the midst of his cancer battle earlier this year. "Covid kicked my ass pretty good, but I'm double vaccinated and feeling much better now."

Radiation Therapy for Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

Distinctions Among Types of Lymphoma

While Jeff Bridges didn't disclose the type of lymphoma publicly he was diagnosed with, the two most common types of this disease are Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Lymphoma is a cancer of the immune system that affects infection-fighting cells called lymphocytes. And there are more than 40 different types of lymphoma.

"Lymphoma is split up into a number of different categories," Dr. Elise Chong, a medical oncologist at Penn Medicine, previously told SurvivorNet in an earlier interview.

"The first distinguishing breakpoint, if you will, is non-Hodgkin lymphoma versus Hodgkin lymphoma," she added, "and those sound like two different categories. But non-Hodgkin lymphoma comprises the majority of lymphoma, and Hodgkin lymphoma is a single specific type of lymphoma."

Hodgkin lymphoma has distinctive, giant cells called Reed-Sternberg cells. The presence of these cells, which can be seen under a microscope, will help your doctor determine which of the two lymphoma types you have.

There are a few other important differences between non-Hodgkin lymphoma and Hodgkin lymphoma to note. For one thing, non-Hodgkin lymphoma is much more common. And you're more likely to be diagnosed with it after age 55, like Jeff Bridges. People usually develop Hodgkin lymphoma at a younger age.

It should be noted that another difference between these two types of lymphoma is that non-Hodgkin lymphoma is more likely to spread in a random fashion and be found in different groups of lymph nodes in the body, while Hodgkin lymphoma is more likely to grow in a uniform way from one group of lymph nodes directly to another.

These two different types of lymphoma behave, spread and respond to treatment differently, so it's important for you to know which type you have.

What Kind of Lymphoma Do You Have? Why Your Type Matters

 

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