'Bridgerton' Actor Jamie Beamish's Lymphoma Battle
- Actor Jamie Beamish, 44, from the massive hit series Bridgerton, shared information from his lymphoma battle in a recent radio interview.
- Beamish was diagnosed with the disease 11 years ago, and had chemotherapy to treat it; two years later, the cancer returned and he treated it with chemo and a stem cell transplant.
- Side effects from chemotherapy may include nausea, nerve pain, fatigue, and hair loss; today, some of these effects can be mitigated.
Beamish’s Lymphoma Battle
Beamish said on-air, “Eleven years ago I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which is a cancer of the lymphatic system.” Lymphoma is a cancer that affects the white blood cells, and there are two common types of this kind of cancer: Hodgkin and Non-Hodgkin. The distinction between the two lies in the presence of Reed-Sternburg cells. Lymphoma is classified as Hodgkin if doctors can’t detect Reed-Sternberg cells in a patient. Hodgin lymphoma is the more treatable of the two main types of lymphoma. “At the time,” said Beamish, “I went through about six months’ chemotherapy at University Hospital Waterford.”The actor’s cancer battle wasn’t over after his chemotherapy, though. He said that about two years later, he relapsed. “I went back into chemo,” said Beamish, “and then eventually had a stem cell transplant in St James’s, Dublin.”
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Effects of Chemotherapy
Beamish’s Hodgkin lymphoma treatment path included chemotherapy, which is often accompanied by some difficult side effects. Chemo side effects can include hair loss, nausea, fatigue, and nerve pain. But thankfully, there have been advances over the years to mitigate some of these effects.
For instance, “cooling caps” can now be used by people going through chemo to slow hair loss. In a previous interview with SurvivorNet, Dr. Michael Ulm, a Gynecologic Oncologist at West Cancer Center, spoke about chemo’s effects. “One of the things that have changed in the coronavirus days is that now we’re giving everybody this drug called Neupogen or Neulasta,” he said. “And it helps boost your white count to mitigate the effects of chemotherapy if you do get coronavirus. One of the other main things that carboplatin causes is fatigue. And in general, that’s cumulative. So I tell my patients that with the first couple of cycles, you do pretty well,” he said.
Related: How to Slow Hair Loss During Chemotherapy for Ovarian Cancer
Dr. Ulm said there have been advances when it comes to symptoms of nausea. “One of the things that patients worry most about is nausea with chemotherapy. With modern medicine and modern antiemetics that you should never have severe nausea. And you should never throw up.”
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