Navigating Stage 4 Cancer & Caregiving For Loved Ones
- English actress Kate Beckinsale, 51, is supporting her beloved mom, 77-year-old TV actress Jude Loe, amid her battle with stage four cancer—and in doing so, she has shared some beautiful memories of her and her mom on social media, while requesting prayers from fans
- Metastatic, or stage 4, cancer is technically not curable, but with ongoing advancements in treatments and options to dramatically reduce symptoms, there are many reasons to be hopeful.
- Although it’s unclear what type of cancer Beckinsale’s mom has, the actress can benefit from genetic testing, which can be as simple as a saliva swab or blood sample, to determine if she has a specific mutation that puts her at higher risk for cancer. Genetic testing results can help doctors tailor your treatment and are helpful for breast cancer patients.
- Germline genetic testing for inherited predisposition for breast (and ovarian) cancer can include just BRCA1 and BRCA2 testing (gene mutations that elevate cancer risk) or a more comprehensive gene panel that might include 15-25 genes. Genetic counselors help patients better understand the results of genetic testing. Patients should ask their care team for a counselor if they’ve undergone genetic testing.
- Being a caregiver is one of the most significant and challenging experiences a human can go through, and it’s important to not forget about your health as you dedicate a large part of your life to serving another.
- If you are caregiving for someone with cancer or another serious illness, this SurvivorNet guide can help you through.
Beckinsale took to Instagram this week to share some incredibly heartfelt videos of her mom and her spending time together—equipped with dancing, laughter, and quality family time.
Read More“Your Love” by The Outfield, followed a cute video of them singing karaoke to Buddy Holly’s “Peggy Sue.” Guidance for Cancer Caregivers
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Other video clips showed Beckinsale joking with her mom, sitting with her at brunch while enjoying strawberries and champagne, dancing at a party, dressed up as sumo wrestlers, at a concert listening to Elton John, and simply just enjoying each other’s company.
Beckinsale wrote alongside the sweet video compilation of her and her beloved mom, “I wasn’t going to come back to Instagram but anyone who has a spare prayer or magic or miracle or sunbeam please send it to my mama.
“My most extraordinary, warrior, generous, humble, loving, unique, irreplaceable Mama.
She concluded, “Thank you -Lord, keep her safe this night, secure from all her fears, may angels guard her while she sleeps till morning.light appears – amen.”
The post, which is the only one on Beckinsale’s Instagram page, prompted immediate praise, with one fan commenting, “Watching you and your mom together had me tearing up – beautiful people.”
Another wrote, “The emotional singing in that last slide gave me goosebumps. Clearly this is a very special, beautiful mama-daughter relationship.
“Sending positive thoughts and well wishes your way.”
“Ms. Beckinsale, all of that you had said about your mom, she’s all of that and more, way much more than that. Hopefully, she’ll get and feel better soon!” said a third fan.
A fourth fan commented, “Hey lovelies …. I am sending lots of prayers,love and magic as well as lots of laughter and I hope that we all will see many more little moments of your family business – just a stranger from Germany … Ahoy.”
Expert Resources On Caregiving
- ‘A Sacred and Blessed Calling’ – Managing Life As a Caregiver
- Caregivers Can’t Provide Optimal Care for Their Loved Ones with Cancer If They Don’t Care for Themselves
- How to Be a Better Caregiver for Your Loved One
- Patrick Dempsey’s Advice to Cancer Caregivers: Take Care of Yourself, Too
- Here Are Top Tips For Cancer Caregivers To Help Them Through The Process
According to People, Beckinsale announced that her mom was battling stage 4 cancer last summer, following harsh comments on social media, referring to how she looked, ultimately revealed her step dad Roy Battersby passed away at the start of 2024.
She reportedly responded to a comment, “No, actually, I watched my stepfather die quite shockingly, my mother has stage 4 cancer, and I lost a lot of weight from stress and grief, quite, quite quickly.”
Beckinsale also said at a May 2024 event, “My mom’s got cancer and my stepdad just died of cancer, and I think having a monarchy that is… you know, people kinda go ‘Why’ve you got it? What’s it for?’ And all of that. Then there’s this, and actually being really open about quite personal things that I think is really important.”
Coping With Stage 4 Cancer
If you’ve been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, or love someone who has, like Beckinsale’s mom, you’ll naturally have a lot of questions and we want to help answer them in this expert-backed primer.
RELATED: Can You Survive a Stage 4 Cancer Diagnosis? An Experts Weighs In
Let’s start with the most basic among common questions: What does stage 4 cancer mean?
Also referred to as metastatic or advanced, it refers to cancer that has spread to other organs or parts of the body. The reason doctors diagnose cancer by its stages (from 0 to 4) is to have a common language for discussion as well as to make a determination for the best and most appropriate treatment.
Stage 4 cancer is a serious diagnosis. But especially now in the age of immunotherapies and other new therapies, some stage 4 cancers, “can have really profound, durable responses to treatment,” Dr. Irene Kang, who specializes in medical oncology at USC Norris Cancer Hospital, told SurvivorNet.
Being There: When the Person You Love Is Facing Cancer
It’s unclear what type of cancer Beckinsale’s mom is battling, but it’s important to understand what stage 4 cancer means. For example, distant metastasis (when your cancer spreads) alone does not necessarily mean a cancer is incurable. “Unfortunately at this point in time, in the vast majority of cases, a cancer spread distantly is a cancer that we can’t cure but there are some exceptions,” Dr. Kang tells SurvivorNet.
For instance, “Not all breast cancers are the same, and not all stage 4 breast cancers are the same,” she says. “You can have a cancer that spreads distantly to many different organ systems or you can have a cancer that’s spread, let’s say, to just one or two sites.”
As another example of a stage 4 cancer with a better prognosis, she cites colon cancer that’s only spread to one site in the liver. “That may be a cancer that we can still cure,” Dr. Kang says.
Overall, she notes, “with the help of new therapy, it’s becoming possible to have long-term disease control with treatment,” in the case of some advanced cancers.
What Is the Life Expectancy of Stage 4 Cancer?
Stage 4 cancer life expectancy depends in part on the type of cancer. For instance, the American Cancer Society cites stage 4 breast cancer survival rate at 22 percent over five years, and about 14 percent for stage 4 colon cancer. Similarly, stage 4 ovarian cancer has a five-year survival rate of about 17 to 20 percent.
Other types of advanced cancers have different outcomes. Stage 4 lung cancer survival rate is less than 5 percent, but new treatments give us hope for better results.
Stage 4 pancreatic cancer has a survival rate of 1 percent over five years. The average patient diagnosed with late-stage pancreatic cancer will live for about one year, according to Johns Hopkins.
Not all stage 4 cancer is terminal; how long you can live with stage 4 cancer varies with the specifics of each individual case and the available treatment options.
Additionally, one person’s stage 4 cancer diagnosis does not necessarily come with the same prognosis as another person’s stage 4 diagnosis.
“There’s a lot of things that go into prognoses,” Dr. Kang explains. These include the type of cancer it is, the treatment options, and the response.
“There are disease-specific factors, as well as patient-specific factors,” she says. The latter would include general strength, and underlying health issues for instance, if the patient already has diabetes, it would make certain treatments more difficult.
The Power of Genetic Testing
Although it’s unclear what type of cancer Beckinsale’s mom has, the actress can benefit from genetic testing, which can be as simple as a saliva swab or blood sample, to determine if she has a specific mutation that puts her at higher risk for cancer.
“If someone gets a genetic test result back, it’s really important for them to know what this is. (What does this) mean for them? Put it into context,” Dr. Elisa Port, a surgical oncologist at Mount Sinai, previously explained to SurvivorNet.
Genetic Testing Can Empower You With Important Information
Genetic counselors help patients during this critical phase of understanding.
“What does it mean for their family members? For their relatives? Genetic counseling to follow up genetic testing is a really, really important part of the whole process and is not always available in the direct-to-consumer type avenue”
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, your doctor can refer you for genetic counseling based on your personal and family health history.
Genetic testing can empower you with important information and direct you to screening tests that can save your life by finding cancers even earlier, says Dr. Beth Karlan, Director of the Women’s Cancer Program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
“If you have a family history of cancers,” says Dr. Karlan, “you should definitely discuss with a genetic counselor or your physician whether or not you should have genetic testing.”
Basically, our body is composed of microscopic building blocks called cells. Every cell in your body carries genetic codes that instruct your body to run properly. If there is any change or error that occurs at your gene level, your healthy cells stop working properly. These errors can lead to gene mutations, which can fuel the development of cancer.
“One of these healthy cells is sitting put, it’s doing its job and it makes mistakes in its instructions. These instructions are called ‘DNA’, and mistakes are called ‘mutations,’” Dr. Jared Weiss, section Chief of Thoracic and Head/Neck Oncology at the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, previously told SurvivorNet.
According to Weiss, “These mistakes make the cell forget how to do its job; instead it learns how to make copies of itself spread and grow, which is what cancer is.”
How Can Next-Generation Sequencing Help You Find a More Effective Cancer Treatment?
Researchers have found a way to examine the genetic material of a patient’s tumors. In the last few decades, they have learned a great deal about how changes in our genes can affect our health and increase the risk of cancer.
Cancer Caregivers: The Basics
Assuming the role of a cancer caregiver when a spouse, parent, sibling, child, or friend is diagnosed with cancer comes with a unique set of responsibilities. The first thing to understand is that there is no shame is asking for help. This can be an overwhelming time for both patients and their caregivers, too.
Through interviews with expert oncologists, social workers, patients advocates, and more, we’ve come up with a checklist of helpful steps cancer caregivers can take throughout the journey.
Cancer caregivers may:
- Attend doctor visits with the patient
- Help the patient take notes/ask questions
- Provide transportation to and from treatment
- Accompany the patient during treatment
- Help keep track of side effects
- Link up with a social worker/patient navigator
- Help with day-to-day activities
- Provide emotional support
RELATED: Patrick Dempsey’s Advice to Cancer Caregivers: Take Care of Yourself, Too
How Cancer Caregivers Can Find Time to Care for Themselves
When you suddenly find yourself acting as a cancer caregiver, the lifestyle adjustment can be jarring. Many people welcome the role of cancer caregiver and the opportunity to help out someone they care about deeply but that doesn’t mean it’s easy.
Filling a caregiver role can be extremely stressful and caregivers often neglect their own needs, which can create a host of additional problems. Experts stress that you will be a better caregiver if you also prioritize caring for yourself. Taking care of your health whether that be with diet, exercise, or making time for activities you enjoy is still crucial.
Julie Bulger gives some tips on how caregivers can care for themselves.
“It is important to have some things that you can do that’s kind of outside of the focus of caring for somebody that you love with cancer,” Julie Bulger, manager of patient and family-centered care at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, told SurvivorNet.
Bulger suggested caregivers find some activities that help them relax like taking a walk or going for a massage.
RELATED: Check Out SurvivorNet’s Resources on Mental Health
“There’s a lot of opportunities for support virtually through educational resources, support communities,” she added. “You can talk to somebody. You can get therapy virtually now.”
When a stressful life event occurs like a loved one being diagnosed with cancer people respond in a variety of ways.
“The way people respond is very variable,” Psychiatrist Dr. Lori Plutchik told SurvivorNet. “Very much consistent with how they respond to stresses and challenges in their life in general.”
When struggling with a new stressor, there are many different and healthy ways to cope. For some people, this may mean seeking out traditional therapy, but it’s not the only option.
Psychiatrist Dr. Lori Plutchik discusses how people may respond to stressors in very different ways.
If you are struggling mentally due to the stress of being a cancer caregiver, there are many options to help you cope. These include:
- Seeking professional help from a psychiatrist or therapist
- Learning healthy coping skills
- Medication such as antidepressants
- Adding more physical activity to your routine
- Adjusting your sleep schedule
- Connecting with others via support groups
- Mindfulness and meditation
Support Matters
Having a strong community around you, as we’re sure Beckinsale has with her loved ones, is ideal when challenged by health struggles.
Dealing with cancer or any sort of health battle for that matter can be overwhelming, so having physical and emotional support is crucial. That being said, it’s very important to know your limits on what you can handle as you undergo treatment and recover from your cancer, and that includes relationships.
“Going through [cancer] treatment is a very vulnerable and emotionally exhausting experience,” licensed clinical psychologist Dr. Marianna Strongin wrote in a column for SurvivorNet. “Noticing what you have strength for and what is feeling like too much, [is] extremely important to pay attention to as you navigate treatment.”
Finding Joy After Cancer Turns Your Life Upside-Down
Dr. Strongin does note, however, that having people by your side during this “arduous chapter” of your life can be hugely beneficial.
“Studies have found consistently that loneliness is a significant risk factor for physical and mental illnesses and the trajectory of recovery,” she wrote. “Therefore, it will be important that you surround yourself with individuals who care and support you throughout your treatment.”
In a previous chat with SurvivorNet, psychiatrist Dr. Lori Plutchik added that some cancer warriors may need to look beyond their existing relationships to find the support they need.
“Some people don’t need to go outside of their family and friends circle. They feel like they have enough support there,” Dr. Plutchik said. “But for people who feel like they need a little bit more, it is important to reach out to a mental health professional.”
Seeking Support: Dr. Plutchik Shares The First 3 Things To Do After a Cancer Diagnosis
Dr. Plutchik said it’s best to find a mental health professional with experience aiding people undergoing cancer treatment.
“Make sure that the mental health professional that you work it is reaching out, with your consent, to the rest of your team, to the oncologist, to the surgeon,” she said. “It can also be helpful to reach out to family, friends, and any other caretakers that may be involved in the person’s treatment.”
Contributing: SurvivorNet Staff
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