Some cancer survivors celebrate beating breast cancer by traveling the world, spending time with loved ones, or raising a family. Well, if you’re Julia Louis-Dreyfus, you celebrate the end of a cancer battle by trying to save the earth.
In an interview with People Magazine for their Earth Day cover issue, Dreyfus, 59, talked about how her battle with breast cancer made her think about how she wanted to spend her remaining time on earth which apparently involves addressing climate change and saving the planet.
Read MoreJulia Louis-Dreyfus on How Battling Cancer Led Her to Focus on Helping Save the Earth https://t.co/punFPKhhBN pic.twitter.com/5k6wFZcfoF
— People (@people) April 15, 2020
Survivors’ Lives After Breast Cancer
Dreyfus was diagnosed with breast cancer in September 2017, and underwent a double mastectomy for treatment as well as rounds of chemotherapy. Despite side effects of chemotherapy, Dreyfus was back on the set of her hit show Veep in 2018 for its final season.
Dreyfus is just one example of how positivity and attitude can make a huge impact on patients’ recovery during cancer treatments no matter what stage of cancer you might be battling. Attitude doesn’t only help patients keep fighting, but oncologists tell SurvivorNet that it could make a long-term effect once they go into remission.
“My patients who thrive, even with stage 4 cancer, from the time that they, about a month after they’re diagnosed, I kind of am pretty good at seeing who is going to be OK,” Dr. Zuri Murrell, a colorectal surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, tells SurvivorNet. “Now doesn’t that mean I’m good at saying that the cancer won’t grow. But I’m pretty good at telling what kind of patient are going to still have this attitude and probably going to live the longest, even with bad, bad disease. And those are patients who, they have gratitude in life…I believe that a positive attitude is what’s really important.”
In addition to a positive attitude, researchers have spoken to SurvivorNet about how mindfulness is also a key way cancer patients can cope with a recent cancer diagnosis. Mindfulness is often suggested for cancer patients to reduce high levels of anxiety and distress associated with diagnosis, treatment and anticipation of possible disease recurrence. Both the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and the Society of Integrative Oncology (SIO) recommends that patients practice meditation as a way to handle stress. It may sound tricky at first, but colon cancer survivor Shannon Masur told SurvivorNet that it helped her tackle fear and let it go.
“I thought [meditation] would be such a challenge,” Masur told SurvivorNet. “But it really wasn’t, because it taught me to feel the fear but kind of let it go after a few seconds, taking time to sit and just kind of get thoughts out, get all of the negative out of my brain for 10 minutes or an hour– and just having that sense of calmness that comes into me when I’m meditating has been really, really helpful for me.”
Related: What's Mindfulness? And Can It Help You During Your Cancer Journey?
Feelings of uncertainty fuels anxiety, and amid a cancer diagnosis, questions are often inevitable. Despite being cancer-free, Dreyfus has been open about fears that her cancer will return a concern shared by many cancer survivors.
CC Webster, who was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma at age 29, talked to SurvivorNet about despite feeling relieved after being told she was cancer-free, Webster experienced increasing anxiety as she feared the cancer would return.
“Once I was in remission, I knew that I was not going to be the same,” Webster told SurvivorNet. “In life after cancer, I experienced an entirely new level of anxiety that I didn’t know existed. Earth shattering anxiety that keeps you up at night and makes you sweat and makes your heart race. I had to learn how to manage myself in that, but how to allow myself to process the trauma that I had just been through.”
Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.