Rae's Cancer-Free Life
- Reality star Shauna Rae is still brain cancer-free after battling the disease as a child.
- When she was six months old, her mom noticed a bump on her head; she was diagnosed with grade 4 malignant glioma, a cancerous brain tumor. Rae’s cancer was treated with surgery and chemotherapy, which stunted her growth. At 22, her body is still that of a young child.
- Rae has praised her family for their love and support. Leaning on family during a cancer battle can help.
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Understanding Brain Cancer
Rae battled brain cancer as a young child. When she was six months old, her mom noticed a bump on Rae’s head. She was sent to Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh where she was diagnosed with grade 4 malignant glioma, a cancerous brain tumor. She treated it with surgery and three and a half years of chemotherapy.
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Her mom noticed later on that Rae wasn’t growing at the rate of other kids in her class. In an earlier interview with SurvivorNet, Rae says, "I was on and off hormones throughout my childhood," she says. At age 16, she stopped taking hormones and realizes her growth was stunted permanently. "I was stuck,” she tells SurvivorNet.
Brain tumors can sometimes be the result of cancer that has originated from another organ but has spread to the brain.
In a previous interview, Dr. Melanie Hayden Gephart, a neurosurgeon at Stanford Medicine, explains the spread of cancer. She says, "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."
"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," says Dr. Gephart. "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."
"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."
Support From Family Through Cancer
As Rae notes, her family is so important to her. She wrote, “No matter what I love them and wouldn't change a thing about who we are because no matter what we're there for each other!” Support from loved ones, like family or friends or a partner, through cancer is so important.
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Beverly Reeves, who battled ovarian cancer, explained to SurvivorNet in an earlier interview how important community and support are when battling cancer. In fact, it's her first piece of advice to someone diagnosed with cancer: Gather your community; circle the wagons, so to speak. She says, "If I had one piece of advice for someone who had just been diagnosed with ovarian cancer, it would be to get a strong support group together."
"Get your close friends. If you're connected to a faith community, get your faith community. Get your family. Let them know what's going on and let them help you. And sometimes that's the most difficult thing to do, but just know that they are there. If they love you, they're there to help you."
'Faith, Family, and Friends' Helped Beverly Reeves Get Through Ovarian Cancer Treatment
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