Olivia Newton-John, 73, Rereleases Vinyl Edition of 1981 Hit Album, ‘Physical:’ Star Is Thriving While Surviving Stage 4 Cancer

Speaking exclusively to Broadway World, Olivia said, "It's hard to believe that it has been 40 years since 'Physical' was first released and I am thrilled that it's getting this beautiful 40th anniversary remastered edition on vinyl isn't it wonderful that vinyl is popular again?"

 

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"I am so proud of this record as it not only allowed me to try new things musically, but it became such a part of pop-culture history and, with the success of the CD/DVD release in October 2021 (#4 on the Amazon charts!!) it was lovely to see how it was discovered by new generations, while at the same time providing my amazing fans with a collection they seem to love!" she added.

When Physical written by Olivia and John Farrar, her producer at the time was first released in 1981, it peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 10 weeks in a row. Over the course of 40 years, the album has sold more than 10 million copies around the world.

It's also been described as one of Australia's where Olivia is from best-selling albums produced by a solo artist.

Olivia Newton-John's Breast Cancer Battle

Olivia Newton-John is living with stage 4, or metastatic breast cancer.

She was first diagnosed with the disease in 1992 and underwent chemotherapy and a partial mastectomy (surgery to remove cancerous breast tissue) for treatment.

She was deemed to be cancer-free after that. However, the cancer returned in 2017 and spread to other parts of her body, including her sacrum, which is the bone at the bottom of the spine.

Understanding Metastatic Breast Cancer

Stage 4, or metastatic, cancers have spread beyond the breast and nearby lymph nodes to other parts of the body. When breast cancer spreads, it most commonly goes to the bones, liver and lungs. It may also spread to the brain or other organs.

Dr. Julie Nangia, an assistant professor of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and the director of the Breast Cancer Prevention High-Risk Clinic, previously told SurvivorNet: "When breast cancer comes back, the most common place for breast cancer to come back is in the bones, and the most common symptom women have is either pain or a fracture when that happens."

When Breast Cancer Spreads to the Bones

To monitor bone metastasis is "actually pretty difficult on imaging," Dr. Nangia explained.

"So you can get serial bone scans every three months along with CT scans," she continued. "But the number one symptom that has really been shown to show if bone metastases are growing or not is how the patient feels. So if a woman is developing new pain in their bones, it could be a sign that the cancer is starting to grow."

Dr. Nangia told SurvivorNet that the question she gets asked the most once patients finish treatment is: "Now what?"

"When we watch women after their treatments to look for if the cancer comes back or not, we don't do any type of specific scans," she explained. "So CT scans, bone scans, tumor markers they're not indicated for looking for recurrence in breast cancer. What we're looking for are new symptoms that last for two weeks or more."

"The reason we picked that timeline is (because) normal things happen to normal people," Dr. Nangia added.

She said she isn't talking about someone lifting a body and straining a muscle in their back that's normal pain.

"But most normal things will be getting better by two weeks," she said. "So if you have had a history of breast cancer and you have new symptoms, whatever they may be, if they've lasted more than two weeks, you really need to go to your regular doctor to see if that's something you should be concerned about or need extra tests to work up."

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