Moving On After Losing a Parent to Cancer
- One thing Meghan McCain knows for sure is that the grief of losing a parent never goes away.
- It has been three and a half years since her father, Sen. John McCain, died rom brain cancer (glioblastoma) on Aug. 25, 2018. He was 81 years old.
- It is difficult to lose anyone you are close to in life to cancer, especially a parent. What can be even harder is living your life again after losing that person. For Meghan McCain, the birth of her daughter, Liberty, in 2020 has helped her move forward.
- However, remembering all the wonderful ways your loved one enriched your life while they were alive and moving on from there can be such a powerful way to move forward and honor them.
It has been three and a half years since her dad, Sen. John McCain, died from brain cancer on Aug. 25, 2018. He was 81 years old.
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Sen. John McCain's Brain Cancer Battle
In July 2017, John McCain, 79 at the time, underwent surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, to remove a blood clot above his eye. However, during the procedure, doctors discovered a growth that was later identified as a glioblastoma.
Glioblastoma has been called the "perfect storm of cancer," and it is the most common brain tumor in adults; glioblastoma brain cancer accounts for about 15% of all brain tumors and usually occurs in adults between the ages of 45 and 70 years.
It grows rather quickly and is located in the brain, the most protected part of the body. This means that surgery should be performed swiftly; there are few drugs that can even reach the tumor, given the impenetrable blood-brain barrier.
The cells of glioblastoma cancer are also heterogeneous each cell must be individually targeted to slow tumor growth. On top of all that, surgery often cannot remove all of the cancer because of the way the tumor burrows into a person's brain, so the tumor starts to grow again immediately after surgery.
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John McCain, newly 80 years old, had surgery again anyway (this time for his brain cancer), as well as chemotherapy and radiation treatments.
This was not John McCain's first time dealing with cancer, or other health problems. In fact, in August 2000, he underwent surgery to remove melanoma (skin cancer). In addition, the former United States senator had a number of underlying health conditions. He also developed diverticulitis (the infection or inflammation of pouches that can form in your intestines) that required surgery one month after he was diagnosed with his brain tumor.
Despite all of this, he put on a brave face until the end, but on Aug. 25, 2018, he lost his battle with glioblastoma, 13 months after his diagnosis.
Brain Cancer Treatment
While brain cancer treatment has come a long way over the past few decades, there is still a lot more work to be done. However, there is one exciting development in the field that could be a game-changer for those battling brain cancer or dealing with tumors.
Could a New Treatment Have Saved John McCain? Fighting Brain Cancer With Electric Fields
For glioblastoma, there is an option for patients that may extend survival time Optune. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved this treatment in October 2015; it is available to adults 22 years of age or older.
This tumor-treating therapy comes in the form of a cap that attaches to a patient's head, where electric currents run through adhesive pads. These currents disrupt the division of cancer cells, which can delay the disease from progressing and thus extend the survival time for some patients.
"I just want to emphasize to patients that when I first started doing this in 1999, there were maybe less than 5 percent of patients with this disease that were alive two years," Dr. Suriya Jeyapalan, a neuro-oncologist at Tufts Medical Center, tells SurvivorNet during a previous interview.
"Now we're getting out to maybe a third of patients alive at five years. This is not your father's brain tumor, and I want to sort of give a message of hope to patients. In the future we'll add to these treatments and make it even better."
Moving On After Losing a Parent to Cancer
It is hard to lose anyone you are close to in life to cancer, especially a parent. What can be even harder is living your life again after losing that person. For Meghan McCain, it has been the birth of her daughter; her father John McCain died before little Liberty was born in 2020. (In an Instagram post on Christmas Day 2020, Meghan wrote, “Liberty already has so much fire in her like you did.”)
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But remembering all the wonderful ways your loved one enriched your life while they were alive and moving on from there can be such a powerful way to move forward and honor them.
In a previous interview with SurvivorNet, Caleb Farley tells us about his mother's battle with breast cancer and how he opted out of his position as a cornerback for the Virginia Tech Hokies due to Covid-19 concerns. Having lost his mom to breast cancer in 2018, he knew he wanted to be extra careful during the pandemic. (Farley trained for the NFL Draft instead of playing for Virginia Tech, and his efforts paid off; in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft, the Tennessee Titans selected Farley as the number 22 overall pick.)
Farley announced the news of his opt-out in an Instagram video saying, in part, "I cannot afford to lose another parent or loved one … Though the competitor in me badly wants to play this season, I cannot ignore what's going on in my heart, and I must make the decision that brings me the most peace."
Farley's mother fought two battles with cancer. He watched as she went through multiple rounds of chemotherapy while still working and taking care of their family. Even though his "superhero" mother will not ever get to see him play in the NFL just as Meghan’s father will never get to meet her daughter Farley will take many lessons he learned from her and apply them to whatever challenges he faces in life.
Contributing: Chris Spargo
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