Jeff Bridges' Journey With Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma
- While reflecting on films like “Heaven’s Gate” and “The Amateurs,” cancer survivor Jeff Bridges says that while failure can be painful, it’s important to process it and then move forward.
- Bridges faced a lymphoma diagnosis in 2020 — and about a year later, in September 2021, was declared in remission. During that time, he endured a lengthy hospital stay while fighting Covid-19 as cancer treatment had weakened his immunity.
- He had chemotherapy to treat his disease. Other lymphoma treatments include active surveillance, radiation, and bone marrow transplant. The two main types of lymphoma are Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Non-Hodgkin lymphoma is more common, and you’re more likely to be diagnosed with it after age 55. People usually develop Hodgkin lymphoma at a younger age.
- Grief is defined as the devastation that occurs when we lose someone, or it could arise after a health diagnosis, or even when a goal we strive to achieve is unsuccessful. It often comes in five stages: grief, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. These labels help us frame and identify what we may be feeling.
- SurvivorNet experts advise that if you approach these feelings are approached with compassion, kindness, and eventual acceptance, you will come away from this period with a renewed sense of resilience and purpose.
- Psychiatrist Dr. Samantha Boardman suggests people working on their mental health to practice positive psychology. Positive psychology focuses on encouraging positivity among patients and finding what brings a sense of vitality to their lives.
- SurvivorNet has other great mental health resources for you, including more films that will inspire you.
The 76-year-old dad of three was recently featured in the magazine and digital platform A Rabbit’s Foot, sharing his “six hard-earned lessons for living”—with one of them being: “Life is just strikes and gutters.”
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Bridges then addressed how brutally the film was criticized, to a point where reviews treated the director like a villain.
He continued, “We were broken-hearted. But in Mike’s lifetime, the film has come to be regarded as a masterpiece, and so pertinent today. I watched it again for the first time in 30 years, and I sat next to T Bone Burnett, a dear friend, and he leaned over and said, ‘Sounds like we’re watching the news, man.'”
“Failure is tough. I made a movie called The Amateurs (2005). Wonderful movie. Great cast. Terrific story. If Frank Capra [Italian-American film director] made a porn movie—that’s kind of the essence of it. But it was financed by a crook, and it didn’t get a proper release as a result,” Bridges explainer further.
After admitting how “heartbreaking” it was that the film didn’t have a successful impact, he added, “I made Hal Ashby’s last movie, 8 Million Ways To Die (1986). He was a true master, but they didn’t respect him. They fired him before he could edit the film.
“But you know what? Shit happens, man. You gotta grieve your failures, then you gotta move on. Life is just strikes and gutters.”
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Bridges rules for living were listed as follows:
- Stay in the zone
- Embrace collaboration
- Find your hobbies
- Accept strikes and gutters
- Have fun
- Seek intimacy
Expert Resources On Coping With Emotions, Stress, & Grief
- 7 Simple Tips People With Cancer Can Do To Care For Their Mental Health and Manage Stress
- Mental Health and Cancer — The Fight, Flight or Freeze Response
- Mental Health: Understanding the Three Wellsprings of Vitality
- Fear, Anger, Anxiety: You’re Entitled To Your Emotions
- Dealing With Grief Related to Health Problems
It’s important to understand that grief is defined as the devastation that occurs when we lose someone, but it could also be felt after a major life change like a cancer diagnosis, or when a goal is not achieved.
Grieving comes in five stages, commonly referred to as the “five stages of grief.”
The stages of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. These labels help us frame and identify what we may be feeling. These stages can occur in any order.
As you find yourself experiencing some of these stages, remember that the emotions you are feeling are meaningful but also temporary. If you approach them with compassion, kindness, and eventual acceptance, you will come away from this period with a renewed sense of resilience and purpose.
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“Grief comes in waves,” says Dr. Scott Irwin, a psychiatrist and Director of Supportive Care Services at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
“They’re grieving the change in their life; the future they had imagined is now different.”
Some days can be more challenging than others, but Dr. Irwin says talk therapy can be helpful. It’s important to reach out to your doctor, a therapist, or support groups in your community for the help you need.
Dealing With Grief Related to Health Problems
Jeff Bridges’ Cancer Battle
Jeff Bridges was diagnosed with lymphoma in 2020 and started chemotherapy treatment right away. Although Bridges hasn’t personally specified which type of lymphoma he was diagnosed with, AARP noted that his cancer was, in fact, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, cancer of a type of white blood cells called lymphocytes, which are part of the immune system.
While cancer treatment was going well, he was also diagnosed with COVID-19 in January 2021, and due to his cancer treatment having weakened his immune system, Bridges wound up spending months in the hospital.
According to AARP, Bridges’ cancer went into remission quickly after he was put through chemotherapy infusion, which was followed by an oral chemo protocol.
He dubbed his wife as being his “absolute champion” as she stayed by Bridges’ side as he recovered from covid in the hospital. “She really fought to keep me off a ventilator. I didn’t want to be on it, and the doctors didn’t necessarily want that. But Sue was adamant,” he told the news outlet.
He was ultimately treated with a blood plasma called “convalescent plasma,” which consists of viral antibodies.
Despite his struggle, like so many cancer survivors, Bridges was left with a renewed appreciation for life.
“I’ll be honest. I didn’t know if I was going to make it,” he told Esquire in an earlier interview. “I was on death’s door there for a while in the hospital. When I finally went back to work, after a two-year hiatus, it was the most bizarre kind of thing. It felt like a dream.”
“I came back after all that time, and saw the same faces [while shooting ‘The Old Man’], the same cast and crew,” he added. “It was like we had a long weekend. I gathered everyone and I said, ‘I had the most bizarre dream, you guys.’ I was sick and out, but all that feels like a gray mush now.”
Better Understanding Non Hodgkin Lymphoma
“Non-Hodgkin lymphoma is a big category,” Dr. Julie Vose, chief of hematology/oncology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, previously told SurvivorNet.
All non-Hodgkin lymphomas begin in white blood cells known as lymphocytes, which are part of your body’s immune system. From there, doctors separate these cancers into types depending on the specific kind of lymphocytes they grow from, B-cells or T-cells.
WATCH: The type of lymphoma you have matters.
Knowing which of these you have can help steer you to the most appropriate treatment.
One way doctors divide up these cancers is based on how fast they’re likely to grow and spread. “The two main classifications I think of in terms of non-Hodgkin lymphoma are lymphomas that are more indolent and those that are more aggressive because those are treated very differently,” Dr. Jennifer Crombie, medical oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, tells SurvivorNet.
Once you’ve been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, the next question your doctor will want to answer is whether you have B-cell or T-cell lymphoma. That answer is important because it will help determine your treatment.
B-cells and T-cells are two kinds of lymphocytes. They’re both infection-fighting cells, but they work in different ways.
About 85% of non-Hodgkin lymphomas affect B cells. These cells produce antibodies, proteins that react to foreign substances like viruses or bacteria in your body. The antibodies attach to another protein on the surface of the invading cells, called an antigen, to target and destroy them.
Types of B-cell lymphoma include:
- Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma
- Follicular lymphoma
- Small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL)/chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)
- Mantle cell lymphoma
- Marginal zone lymphomas
- Burkitt lymphoma
T-cell lymphomas make up only 15% of non-Hodgkin lymphomas. Unlike B-cells, T-cells directly destroy bacteria and other invaders.
Types of T-cell lymphoma include:
- T-lymphoblastic lymphoma/leukemia
- Peripheral T-cell lymphomas
- Cutaneous T-cell lymphoma
What Treatment for Non Hodgkin Lymphoma Looks Like?
Lymphoma treatment largely depends on the nature of your specific diagnosis. For non-Hodgkin lymphoma patients, their cancer is more likely to spread randomly and be discovered in different groups of lymph nodes in the body. Hodgkin lymphoma cancers, on the other hand, are more likely to grow consistently from one group of lymph nodes directly to another.
WATCH: Non-Hodgkin lymphoma treatment options
“There are some lymphomas that are very treatable but not curable,” Dr. Lawrence Piro told SurvivorNet.
Dr. Lawrence Piro is the President and CEO of The Angeles Clinic and Research Institute in Los Angeles, a Cedars-Sinai affiliate. He adds that some lymphomas progress quickly if left untreated.
Non-Hodgkin lymphoma treatment depends on the type, stage, and how fast it grows. People with aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma can expect to get a chemotherapy combination called R-CHOP, which is a drug cocktail consisting of chemotherapy drugs plus an antibody drug and a steroid to treat diffuse large B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
R-CHOP stands for:
- R: Rituximab (Rituxan) is a monoclonal antibody that attaches to a specific protein called CD20, which sits on the surface of B cells. It targets cancerous cells and destroys them.
- C: Cyclophosphamide is a type of chemotherapy drug
- D: Doxorubicin hydrochloride (hydroxydaunomycin) is a type of chemotherapy drug
- V: Vincristine sulfate (Oncovin) is a type of chemotherapy drug
- P: Prednisone is a steroid that lowers inflammation
Patients receiving R-CHOP receive the drug in six cycles that are three weeks apart.
“R-CHOP is a cocktail of drugs. There are five different drugs in that recipe,” Dr. Crombie tells SurvivorNet.
WATCH: Understanding R-CHOP treatment
R-CHOP side effects can include:
- Tiredness and weakness
- Hair loss
- Mouth sores
- Bruising and bleeding
- Increased risk of infection
- Appetite loss and weight loss
- Changes in bowel movements
Immunotherapy and targeted therapy are also treatment options for Non Hodgkin Lymphoma patients.
Rituximab (Rituxan) was the first immunotherapy drug approved to treat some forms of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. “Rituximab is the immunotherapy that has been approved the longest, and we have the most experience with lymphoma,” Dr. Chong tells SurvivorNet.
Rituxan has side effects, including fever, chills, swelling under the skin, itching, and mild shortness of breath.
Brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) is a relatively new targeted treatment for non-Hodgkin lymphoma and Hodgkin lymphoma. This drug is an antibody-drug conjugate that combines an antibody (a type of protein that recognizes foreign substances in the body) with a drug that treats cancer. It uses a particular protein to deliver medicine directly to the cancer cell.
Non-Hodgkin lymphoma can also be treated with radiation, which aims beams of intense energy at the cancer to stop cancer cells from growing and dividing.
What You Need to Know About Survivorship
Whether you’re beginning your journey into survivorship or are a seasoned survivor, you’ll quickly learn that it’s a term with many layers. At its simplest, ‘survivorship’ signifies the state of living beyond a challenging event or diagnosis, such as cancer. More specifically, it marks the period after treatment where a patient goes from merely surviving to thriving, as they navigate their newfound lease on life.
It’s important to remember that survivorship isn’t just an end state – it’s a continuous journey. It begins the moment a person is diagnosed with a significant health condition and continues throughout their life. You might hear people say things like, “from the moment of diagnosis, you become a survivor.”
It’s a powerful sentiment that reflects the courage and resilience involved in battling a serious illness.
Being a survivor also means redefining your life while coping with the aftermath of disease and its treatment. This phase might include the challenge of dealing with physical and emotional changes, attending regular check-ups, the fear of recurrence, or the need for long-term medication. Despite these hurdles, many survivors find unique strength, growth, and transformation during this time.
Survivorship is much more than just the absence of disease—it’s a new stage of life, a rite of passage. Your journey might not have been one you would have chosen, but through it, you’ll uncover a greater understanding of yourself and what you’re capable of. Each person’s survivorship journey is unique, and how you choose to travel is entirely up to you.
Remember—navigating this new terrain called ‘Survivorship’. It might be challenging, but remember, you’re not alone. There are ample resources and support systems designed to help you along the way.
Continued Medical Care
Don’t lose sight of the importance of continued medical care – always keep your follow-up appointments and adhere to any healthcare recommendations.
Remember, embracing these coping strategies can help you navigate your way into survivorship with greater ease and renewed energy. Just remember – slow and steady wins the race! You’ve overcome huge hurdles, it’s okay to take this new stage of your life at your own pace.
Resilient learning to overcome any obstacle
Additionally, health checkups are an integral part of maintaining wellness and spotting potential health issues early. This holds true for everyone, but even more so for a person who’s in the throes of survivorship.
One of the main reasons you’ll want to maintain routine health checks is to monitor for recurrence. While the hope is always for complete recovery, there’s a possibility of the disease returning—even with successful treatment. Regular checkups allow you to keep a vigilant eye on the situation, leading to early detection and treatment if any problem emerges.
Contributing: SurvivorNet Staff
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