Megan's "Good News"
- Rapper Megan Thee Stallion, 25, lost her mom to a brain tumor in March 2019; brain tumors can result from brain cancer, and from cancer in other areas of the body spreading to the brain.
- Megan just released her first solo album, “Good News.”
- After losing a parent, tools like therapy, support groups, and leaning on friends and family can help.
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Understanding Brain Tumors
Brain tumors can result from brain cancer and other cancers, particularly when cancer metastatizes, or spreads. Cancer can spread from different areas of the body such as the lungs or the breasts and affect the brain, too. Metastatic cancer is often called “stage four,” and treatment options can be more limited at later stage diagnoses for cancer.
Dr. Melanie Hayden Gephart, a neurosurgeon at Stanford Medicine, explained the spread of cancer to SurvivorNet in a previous interview. She said, “Lung cancer is one of the most common types of tumors to metastasize to the brain. I think the key is that if we can minimize the side effects of the treatment, that’s our main goal, and provide effective treatment of the brain tumor. That frequently looks like a combination of systemic chemotherapy, or targeted therapies, focused radiation, and surgery.”
Dr. Hayden Gephart said that certain factors are at play when looking at treatment options. “Surgery’s indicated if the tumor is over a certain size, is otherwise limited, and if the patient has a significant neurologic deficit that is associated with that tumor itself. Focused radiation is ideal if there’s a small number of small-volume tumors. Whole-brain radiation is indicated if the patient has failed other mechanisms of systemic treatment and has too many tumors that could be treated with focused radiation.”
While we don’t know what led to Megan’s mom’s brain tumor, we do know that treatment options are possible. “Sometimes when patients are diagnosed with metastatic brain tumors, right at the initial time of diagnosis where they’re treatment-naive– have not seen any treatments– if they have a particular mutation and can get targeted therapy, even the brain metastases can respond well to systemic chemotherapy.”
When Lung Cancer Spreads to the Brain
Losing a Parent to Cancer
Losing a parent to cancer is hard at any age, even if you’re an adult like Megan was when she lost her mom last year. Coping with the grief that comes from a loss of this magnitude can be helped by resources such as therapy, support groups, and even faith.
The pain of losing a parent never fully goes away, but the grief process can be made less painful. Camila Legaspi was only in high school when she lost her mom to breast cancer. In a previous interview with SurvivorNet, Legaspi said that therapy is what kept her afloat following the loss of her mother. “Therapy saved my life. I was dealing with some really intense anxiety and depression at that point. It just changed my life, because I was so drained by all the negativity that was going on. Going to a therapist helped me realize that there was still so much out there for me, that I still had my family, that I still had my siblings. The reality is, is when you lose someone, it’s really, really, really hard. And it’s totally OK to talk to someone. And I’m so happy that I talked to my therapist.”
Legaspi has some encouraging words for those coping with loss; she tells us, “Keep your chin up, and it’s going to be OK. No matter what happens, it’s going to be OK.”
"Therapy Saved My Life": After Losing A Loved One, Don't Be Afraid To Ask For Help
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