Cancer survivor Ami Brown, 55, the matriarch of the family that stars in popular show “Alaskan Bush People” is now the subject of some very harsh criticism as the show returns to TV.
Brown is recovering from treatment for stage 3 lung cancer. On a recent promotional tweet, she and her husband seem to be receiving a lot of grief for living in Washington, when the show is supposed to take place in the Alaskan wilderness, completely “off the grid.”
“Still don't get why they are called Alaskan Bush People? They live in Washington State! They change names of shows all the time they even change the channel it airs on!” wrote one person who is seemingly disappointed with the direction show. Read MoreWelcome to Brown Town. ????#AlaskanBushPeople starts NOW. pic.twitter.com/OMCO2ux5H1
Alaskan Bush People (@AlaskanBushPPL) August 12, 2019
Other trolls called into question the integrity of the show in slightly different ways. “Do they actually live on their land? Also wondering why you never see the wives or girlfriends out there helping? If my guy was building us a home by hand, I'd be out there swinging a hammer too. As a sibling I'd ask where's your Bich man???”
But this isn’t the first time Ami has had to deal with internet trolls. After some trolls inconsiderately called into question the veracity of Ami's claim that she had cancer, doctors from UCLA Medical center came forward to confirm the diagnosis.
"Amora Brown was diagnosed with Stage III non-small cell lung cancer in April 2017," read the doctor statement in People magazine. "Treatment for her cancer included a four-month course of chemotherapy with radiation. Her disease responded well to the treatment, and, according to her UCLA oncologist Dr. Deborah Wong, she is now in remission. Although her most recent scans show no evidence of cancer, "Amora will continue to be monitored closely by her medical team over the next several months," UCLA said.
Ami, whose was first diagnosed with cancer in 2017, has been declared cancer free. “It was very scary,” Ami told People magazine about her cancer journey. “But I never gave up hope.”
How is Lung Cancer Treated?
We don't know everything about Ami's case, but her treatment with chemotherapy and radiation is consistent with standard practices for stage three lung cancer. There are few types of stage three lung cancer, but the disease can be treatable.
Patients diagnosed with Stage 3 lung cancer have tumors that are not only in the lungs but have also spread to nearby lymph nodes. Depending on how advanced this spread is and the patient's health, doctors will choose some combination of radiation therapy, chemotherapy, or possibly surgery.
Dr. Keith Cengel, Radiation Oncologist at University of Pennsylvania on treatment for stage 3 lung cancer
Bone , PET, CT and MRI scans help doctors get an idea of how much the cancer has spread, and then make treatment decisions. If radiation is the treatment of choice, high energy beams are aimed at the cancer. This basically damages the DNA inside cancer cells, preventing them from growing or creating more cancerous tissue.
"There's the opportunity with aggressive therapy to try to cure the cancer," says Dr. Billy Loo, Jr., a radiation oncologist and bioengineer who leads the Thoracic Radiation Oncology Program at Stanford.
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