Fighting For Her Family
- Chicago Med actress Marlyne Barrett has announced she is battling ovarian and uterine cancer at 44 years old. Doctors found a near football-sized mass on her ovary and uterus, which is sadly why the new mom felt she had been looking “nine months pregnant.”
- Despite the traumatic diagnosis, the mom of 11-month old twins is ready to fight for her family, and is already on her third round of chemotherapy at City of Hope in Los Angeles.
- With ovarian cancer, chemotherapy is usually the first stage of treatment, but as far as staging your actual cancer? It’s a little more difficult to tell until your doctor performs a surgery. Right now, it is likely that Marlyne does not know the official stage, as she is only on her third chemotherapy treatment.
“I’m an extremely private person, but I felt a responsibility to tell my story,” Barrett told PEOPLE about her brave choice to share her personal health news.
Read More“We as human beings are so scared to face the mortality of life, or to even pronounce the word cancer,” she expressed. “But we have so much more strength inside of us than we think.”
As far as some extra support, thankfully she lucked out with Gavin, who she wed in 2009. Support from a partner is crucial when going through something this intense.
Related: Five Ways to Support Someone after A Cancer Diagnosis Never Say 'How Can I Help?'
“I’m married to the most incredible man,” she shared. “I get pins and needles in my limbs from the chemo and he’ll drop everything to give me food and hand massages. He’s dropped everything just to give me love.”
As Marlyne goes through chemo, members of the Chicago Med cast and crew have shown the ultimate act of solidarity. “I’ve had people shave their heads on set to support me,” she said while holding back tears.
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“I didn’t want to give the power to chemo,” says Barrett. “My hair has always been an essence of beauty. But I took my own razor and I shaved my head. I did it in front of my babies so they’d see it was still Mommy. I wept, I wept, I wept. But it was a beautiful experience to do it in front of them.”
Marlyne Barrett’s Cancer Diagnosis
Marlyne reports that she started feeling “off” a couple of months ago as she was recovering from a hernia.
“I had this accumulation of fluid [in my abdomen] that I couldn’t shake,” she says. “I looked like I was nine months pregnant. And I also had shortness of breath, but no pain, which was interesting.”
Then doctors found a mass that was near the size of a football on her ovary and uterus.
“The initial experience was a shock, a shock to my womanhood,” says Barrett, who has no history of either cancer in her family. “I didn’t believe them, but when they showed me the CT scan, I went, ‘Oh my word.’ The first questions were, ‘Am I going to live?’ I just fell into my husband’s arms. It still takes my breath away when I think about it.”
Since she immediately had to start very aggressive chemotherapy, Marlyne tried to snap herself out of it.
“There’s no running from it because it’s my life,” she said. “And eventually you just surrender because it’s so much bigger than anything you’ve ever faced. I found this courage and I just hunkered down and said, ‘I’m going to face this.'”
Related: ‘Learn to Accept Yourself:’ A Huge Part of Living With Cancer
Right now, her work is keeping her distracted, and she makes sure to take little naps in between scenes. “Interestingly enough, my character on the show already wears a wig!” And ultimately, “work brings me a lot of joy right now,” she says.
Emotional Health and Surviving Cancer
During your cancer care, feeling happy can actually help you live longer. As such, it's important to take just as much care of your emotional health as your physical health when living with ovarian cancer. In fact, studies have shown that patients with better emotional health have a better quality of life when going through treatment, and these women actually live longer than those with worse emotional well-being.
To better understand the role of emotional health and social support after a cancer diagnosis, we spoke to Dr. Dana Chase, gynecologic oncologist at Arizona Oncology.
What Still Brings You Joy? Your Emotional Health is So Important to Living with Ovarian Cancer
A number of studies over the years have shown that women with ovarian cancer who have better mental and emotional health live longer than those who don't.
"We know…better quality of life is associated with better survival, better outcomes," says Dr. Chase. She and other oncologists in the field agree that minding close attention to the quality of life and happiness of patients is very important.
"Definitely working on your emotional health, your physical well-being, your social environment…working on those things and making them better are important and can impact your survival," she urges.
Learning About Ovarian Cancer
With ovarian cancer, chemotherapy is usually the first stage of treatment, but as far as staging your actual cancer? It’s a little more difficult to tell until your doctor performs a surgery. Right now, it is likely that Marlyne does not know the stage, as she is only on her third chemotherapy treatment.
Since the mass is on her ovary and uterus, it is also likely that her doctors don’t yet know where it officially started until they do the surgery as well.
How Do I Know The Stage of My Ovarian Cancer? Staging Surgery Determines Spread
For ovarian cancer, gynecologic oncologists recommend a staging procedure after a diagnosis when they have evidence that the cancer may be early or limited, which has to do with the location of the tumor. Based on where the cancer is found, it will be assigned a stage.
We spoke with Dr. Amanda Fader, who further describes the notion of staging your ovarian cancer through surgery, that determines what, if any, cancer has spread.
"If it's remained in the ovary where it was initially found or developed, then the cancer is Stage 1," says Dr. Amanda Fader, vice chair of gynecologic surgical operations at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, tells SurvivorNet.
"But if the cancer has started to spread to other organs or through the lymph nodes to other parts of the body, then it would be identified as Stage 2, 3, or 4,” Dr. Fader adds.
The Stages of Ovarian Cancer
- Stage 1: The cancer is confined to the ovaries or fallopian tubes
- Stage 2: The tumor involves one or both ovaries with extension to other pelvic tissues (or is a primary peritoneal cancer)
- Stage 3: The cancer has spread outside of the pelvic peritoneum including to the outside of the bowel, liver and spleen and/or it involves the lymph nodes
- Stage 4: There are distant metastases (outside of the pelvis and abdomen) or metastases to the inside of the spleen or liver
When doctors have evidence before the surgery, such as from imaging tests, that the tumor may be limited to the ovary, they will usually recommend a staging procedure. During that operation doctors remove all or part of the ovary with the tumor and send itwhile the patient is still asleep on the operating tableto a pathologist who will examine the tissue and identify the type of tumor so doctors can decide how best to treat it.
If the tumor is determined to be benign, the surgery can end. Otherwise, more extensive surgery is usually performed. Prior to the surgery the patient and her doctor would have discussed the various possible findings, so that depending on the result of the ovarian biopsy, the surgeon knows what the patient's wishes are and how to proceed. "We would have made these decisions ahead of time through our preoperative counseling," explains Dr. Fader.
If the tumor is malignantovarian cancer"then we usually do a hysterectomy and remove the opposite ovary, too, in case it's involved with the cancer. We also remove the omentuman apron of fat in the abdomen. It has no known function, like the appendix, but can be involved in many ovarian cancer cases. And we'll do several biopsies around the abdomen and pelvis, including biopsies of the lymph nodes and peritoneum (the tissue lining of the abdomen)."
These biopsies will determine whether the cancer has spread and if so, how far.
Symptoms to look out for with this difficult-to-diagnose disease include: bloating, feeling full, fatigue, back pain, and changes in your menstrual cycle.
Understanding Uterine Cancer
With uterine cancer, people may be predisposed to the disease.
"Uterine cancer and endometrial cancer are synonymous,” says Dr. Diana English, a gynecologic oncologist at Stanford Medicine. “It's a cancer that's coming from the lining of the uterus. That's what endometrial cancer is."
Related: 'Nanny' Star Fran Drescher Continues to Thrive 21 Years after Uterine Cancer Fight
"I think one of the challenges with uterine cancer is that it can also happen in younger patients that have certain conditions that might predispose them to cancer," she explains further to SurvivorNet. "These patients might not be thinking about this, their primary care providers may not be speaking to them about this."
Dr. English outlines for SurvivorNet common risk factors of uterine cancer. They include:
- Hypertension
- Diabetes
- Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (which is marked by the absence of regular periods)
- Obesity
- Hyperandrogenism (elevated male sex hormones)
- Lynch Syndrome
Contributing by SurvivorNet staff.
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