Abby Lee Miller Is Triumphing Over Burkitt Lymphoma
- Miller is working hard to regain her ability to walk after an aggressive cancerous tumor required multiple spinal surgeries
- She resumed physical therapy when quarantine restrictions eased
- After a difficult spring, her new, positive outlook is speeding her progress
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Read MoreReveling in her recent outings in Santa Monica, Miller captured her renewed strength and upbeat mood with a quote from Charlotte Bronte: “Even for me, life has its gleams of sunshine.”
For Miller: Life Is Looking Up
Her fresh outlook represents an about-face from April, when she faced isolation in an “awful” hotel-bound quarantine: "They're telling me I have to move out tomorrow," she told Hollywood Life in a video interview.
Miller’s recent outings reflect her renewed energy and commitment to physical therapy.
I'm handicapped, so it's a nightmare. I found an apartment, finally, but it's brand-new; it's not inspected … so I can't move in."
"I don't know what I'm going to do," Miller said. "it's absolutely awful."
A Cancerous Tumor: Spinal Surgery
Miller ran a Pittsburgh area dance studio before being cast on Lifetime's “Dance Moms” in 2012. Later convicted of bank fraud, Miller served just over a year in prison.
After her release, her cancer struggle began when she underwent back surgery. "It was physically tough and emotionally draining," she said of her recovery.
"Going through the surgery, recovering, going to therapy … trying to get my right foot to move again, to get my toes to wiggle, that was hard."
Now that her physical therapy sessions have resumed and she’s getting out a bit, Miller has been radiating positive energy in recent months. In June, she shared a video showing her progress and reported proudly that she’d walked “200 steps today!”
About Burkitt Lymphoma
Burkitt lymphoma is named after the doctor who first described it in African children, according to the American Cancer Society. A highly aggressive B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma that can spread to the central nervous system, Burkitt Lymphoma is one of the fastest-growing cancers known, so it needs to be diagnosed and treated quickly.
Because the disease is often indistinguishable from diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, another aggressive form of lymphoma, an accurate diagnosis is critical, according to the Lymphoma Research Foundation.
About Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma
Burkitt Lymphoma is a form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which starts in the white blood cells (lymphocytes), which are part of the body's immune system, according to the American Cancer Society.
"Non-Hodgkin lymphoma is not one disease, it's many diseases," according to Dr. Catherine Diefenbach, Director of Translational Hematology and Clinical Lymphoma at NYU Langone Health and the Perlmutter Cancer Center, who was not commenting specifically on Abby's case. "And there are over 68 kinds of lymphoma.”
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“For this reason, it's very important that if you have a diagnosis of lymphoma, you're treated by a lymphoma specialist. And, we hope for all of our lymphoma patients that the first therapy you receive will be your last therapy. That is, that we can treat you and cure you with first-line therapy."
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