‘Something to Celebrate’: Celebrity Big Brother Star Trisha Goddard, 68, Says Positive Brain Scans Showed Her Stage 4 Breast Cancer Isn’t Metastasizing to Her Brain

Dr. Elizabeth Comen, a medical oncologist from the Memorial Sloan Cancer Center, explains that metastatic breast cancer means that the breast cancer is “living in another part of your body. That can be in the liver, the bone, the lungs, or potentially even the brain.”

Goddard, a trailblazing journalist and the first Black British woman to host her own talk show, has lived with metastatic breast cancer for more than two years. Over time, she has become a powerful public voice for survivorship, resilience, and emotional honesty.

Her history with cancer stretches back 17 years. She was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008 and credits her then-husband for helping her through treatment.

For a long time, she believed that chapter of her life was behind her—until nearly three years ago, when a string of exercise-related injuries raised concern. After a fall at home, she feared she had fractured her leg. Instead, scans revealed something far more serious: cancer cells in her hip. It was a recurrence of her original breast cancer, now classified as stage 4.

“MRI and CAT scans are a regular part of my treatment for metastatic breast cancer,” Goddard explained. “Along with non-stop blood tests, it’s how my oncology team keeps tabs on all those little f***er cancer cells they’re constantly playing ‘Whack-A-Mole’ with!”

She added that receiving her scan results within an hour—through a secure app—was a tremendous relief. “I can’t imagine having to go into the New Year full of angst waiting for them… and my heart goes out to all of you who are currently having to go through that.”

Goddard’s treatment included radiation and several months of chemotherapy, she explained to Stamford Health.

 

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What to Expect During Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer

Chemotherapy is an effective tool for oncologists to help treat cancer by stopping cancerous cells from growing, dividing, and spreading to other organs. Chemo works by traveling through the bloodstream, killing cancerous cells. However, healthy cells are also impacted in the process, leading to side effects.

Patients almost universally experience fatigue, often alongside gastrointestinal side effects, such as nausea. Doctors have many effective medications to combat chemo-induced nausea. “But mitigating that fatigue often depends on the patient,” says Dr. Renata Urban, a gynecologic oncologist at the University of Washington in Seattle.

“Neuropathy is probably one of the most challenging side effects,” says Dr. Urban. Neuropathy results from damage to the peripheral nerves. It usually resolves after chemotherapy treatment, but sometimes symptoms can persist. While it’s typically characterized by numbness or a pins-and-needles sensation in the hands and feet, neuropathy can have several different symptoms, including:

• Weakness in the hands or feet
• Stabbing or burning pain in the hands or feet
• Difficulty gripping, such as when holding a fork
• Difficulty with fine motor skills, such as writing or buttoning a shirt

Nausea and vomiting are common side effects of chemotherapy. When chemotherapy affects the rapidly dividing cells in the lining of the stomach, the resulting cellular havoc in the gastrointestinal tract can lead to side effects such as nausea and vomiting. However, doctors can help patients mitigate the hit with various medications before, during, and after treatment.

“Part of the chemotherapy prescription includes a set regimen of anti-nausea medications,” says Dr. Urban. “We also ensure that patients have medications at home that they can use should they develop nausea after treatment.”

Hair loss is another side effect of chemotherapy.

WATCH: Coping with hair loss.

“For cancer patients, losing one’s hair can be unbelievably stressful. To start with, the dread of losing one’s hair can lead to some sleepless nights and feelings of anxiety,” Dr. Samantha Boardman, a New York-based psychiatrist and author, told SurvivorNet.

Chemotherapy can cause hair loss. It usually begins about three to four weeks after chemotherapy and continues throughout treatment.

It happens because this treatment targets quickly dividing cells throughout the body. That includes cancer cells but also hair cells.

Most patients can expect regrowth four to six weeks after treatment. However, it is possible that when your hair grows back, you may notice some changes in its color and texture.

Tips for Navigating Chemo Side Effects

When dealing with fatigue, doctors don’t have an arsenal of weapons to combat fatigue in terms of prescription medications. However, you can do several things to help minimize the hit and restore your energy.

• Exercise: While it may be counterintuitive, physical activity can help alleviate side effects, especially fatigue. “Although ovarian cancer is not common, we often draw upon the experience of patients with breast cancer and colon cancer, who have shown that physical activity can not only improve quality of life but may also have beneficial impacts on cancer outcomes,” Dr. Urban says.
• Eat well: Even though nausea may interfere with your ability to eat a healthy diet, it’s essential to ensure you’re eating appropriately, getting enough protein, and not losing weight. Not only will nourishing your body support your recovery, but it may also help you feel more energized.
• Sleep: Want to mitigate fatigue? Be sure to maintain your regular sleep-wake cycle while on treatment. Sticking to a set sleep schedule helps reduce fatigue by ensuring enough hours for your body to heal and restore itself each night. It may also help you recover more quickly by keeping energy levels high during the daytime.

Treating Neuropathy Symptoms

Doctors have several strategies for helping patients deal with this side effect. Once a patient begins experiencing the symptoms of neuropathy, they’ll be carefully monitored to make sure it doesn’t get worse. Before each chemotherapy infusion, the attending oncologist will assess whether the symptoms have progressed. If the symptoms worsen, they may adjust the dose or delay treatment. They may also try switching to another chemotherapy drug.

How to Get a Handle on Nausea

Most of these anti-nausea medications last for more than eight hours. One of the infusions commonly used reduces the degree of nausea for up to three days.

Complementary approaches may also be helpful. A few favorites:

• Ginger: Studies consistently show that ginger helps alleviate chemotherapy-induced nausea. The powerful herb appears to have an anti-spasmodic effect on the gut. Not a fan of raw ginger? Suck on ginger candy, sip ginger ale, or make a steaming cup of ginger tea.
• Pressure bracelets: at your local pharmacy, these bracelets provide consistent pressure on a particular acupressure point on the wrist to reduce nausea.
• Deep breathing: Moving air in and out of your lungs with a few deep breaths can help relieve nausea, particularly if you pair deep breathing exercises with meditation. It can also help you relax and release stress and anxiety.

WATCH: Managing chemo side effects.

Coping with Hair Loss

If losing your hair is a concern for you before cancer treatment, know you have options like wigs, hats, wraps, and scarves, among other things.

Another option that can minimize hair loss is cryotherapy, “just a fancy way of saying cold therapy,” says Dr. Urban.

Cryotherapy involves wearing cold caps or special cooling caps before, during, and after each chemotherapy treatment.

Radiation Therapy: A Powerful Tool with Long-Term Considerations

Radiation therapy—using high-energy rays to destroy cancer cells—is a common follow-up to breast cancer surgery, especially for patients who choose a lumpectomy over a mastectomy. Its goal: reduce the risk of recurrence by targeting any lingering cancer cells in the breast or surrounding tissue.

While effective, radiation can come with side effects, both immediate and delayed. Common symptoms include:

• Fatigue
• Swelling
• Scar tissue
• Shortness of breath

RELATED: Cancer Patients With Dark Skin At Increased Risk of Painful Radiation Side Effects, New Research Says

One of the more serious concerns involves the heart, which can unintentionally absorb radiation due to its proximity to the breast.

“When the radiation is delivered, unfortunately, the heart happens to be somewhere very near to where they have their breast cancer, and it becomes an innocent bystander absorbing some of the radiation,” explained Dr. Jean-Bernard Durand to SurvivorNet.

This exposure can lead to complications such as fatigue, shortness of breath, and even heart failure—sometimes surfacing decades after treatment.

“We make it a point to see them on a regular basis so that we can catch these things very early and treat them,” Dr. Durand added.

Even advanced techniques like proton therapy, which aim to minimize damage to healthy tissue, aren’t immune to side effects. Fatigue remains a common complaint, and the risk of long-term injury still exists.

“Radiation is a form of energy… and when we give radiation, it has the ability to scatter,” Dr. Durand said. “Even though we may target one particular area, that scattering of energy can cause injury to the local surrounding structures, including the heart.”

Over time, this injury can lead to the development of scar tissue within the heart muscle, its electrical system, and blood supply.

“We believe it is what causes all the injury, that ultimately leads to the symptoms,” he explained.

For survivors, this underscores the importance of ongoing monitoring and open conversations with care teams.
Radiation treatment continues to evolve, with ongoing debates among experts about how to reduce side effects while optimizing outcomes. Dr. Shah outlined three key areas of discussion:

• Whole vs. Partial Breast Radiation: Shortening treatment duration and minimizing side effects are promising, though long-term data are still emerging.
• Identifying Patients Who May Not Need Radiation: Some individuals may not benefit from radiation, and omitting it could reduce unnecessary risks.
• Technique Optimization: Advancements in delivery methods aim to improve effectiveness while limiting harm to healthy tissue.

“I think the first debate that we have is whole breast radiation versus partial breast radiation and the idea of reducing duration of treatment and reducing side effects for patients, albeit with less than 10 years’ worth of long-term data,” Dr. Shah explained to SurvivorNet.

More on Goddard’s Breast Cancer Journey

After being diagnosed in 2008, she didn’t disclose it to others immediately.
Goddard was worried her cancer diagnosis would have a negative impact on her ability to work as a journalist.

“My worry is that people will start seeing me as a frail little thing and that if [the news] got out, I’d be judged, or people would change the way they are with me, or that I wouldn’t work,” Goddard said.

“It gets to a stage, after a year and a half, when keeping a secret becomes more of a burden than anything else,” Goddard added as her reason for going public with her cancer recurrence.

WATCH: Sharing a Diagnosis

Some people battling a disease or cancer are open to sharing their experiences as much as they can, while others prefer to keep it to themselves or close loved ones. SurvivorNet experts say both approaches, and everything in between, are valid.

“Patients who have just been diagnosed with cancer sometimes wonder how they are going to handle the diagnosis of the cancer in social situations,” psychiatrist Dr. Lori Plutchik explains.

Questions like “How much information should they share and with whom should they share the information?” are things Plutchik says patients take into consideration.

Dr. Plutchik explains, “There is no one right way to handle this diagnosis. People should do what feels right to them.”

A cancer journey can last months to years, which means cancer warriors may be experiencing a lot of uncertainty until they fully understand where their health stands. This uncertainty can influence when a cancer patient is ready to share their diagnosis, Dr. Plutchik further explained.

Dr. Plutchik stresses that those close to a person going through cancer should be respectful of their wishes when it comes to disclosing their diagnosis and seeking support.

Treatment Options for Advanced Breast Cancer

Metastatic breast cancer means cancer cells have spread from the breast to other parts of the body, which may include the bones, liver, lungs, brain, and beyond.

Breast cancer spreads through the bloodstream or lymphatic system. The blood carries cancer cells to different body parts, where they grow as new tumors.

As the cancer spreads to other body parts, patients may experience additional symptoms depending on where the cancer has spread. Examples include:

• Bones: Severe bone pain or fractures
• Lungs: Difficulty breathing, chest pain, new cough
• Liver: Yellowing of the skin (jaundice), abdominal pain, nausea, and/or vomiting
• Brain: Headaches, memory loss, changes in vision, seizures

WATCH: Treatment options for metastatic breast cancer.

Although stage 4 breast cancer is not curable, several treatment options exist that can extend the life of patients. Treatment options depend on the stage, type of primary breast cancer, and whether hormone receptors are positive.

Treatment can include a combination of:

• Chemotherapy: Oral or IV medications that are toxic to tumor cells
• Hormonal therapies: Drugs that lower estrogen levels or block estrogen receptors from allowing the cancer cells to grow
• Targeted therapies: Drugs that target your tumor’s specific gene mutations
• Immunotherapy: Medications that stimulate your immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells
• Radiation: The use of high-energy rays to kill tumor cells and shrink tumors
• Surgery: To remove a cancerous tumor or lymph nodes (uncommon with stage IV; more common in stages I, II, and III)
• Clinical trials: Studies of new medications, treatments, and other therapies offer hope for better outcomes.

Discovering the Latest Treatments for Advanced Breast Cancer

Late-stage breast cancer is not one disease, but many different diseases, so the options available to different patients vary a great deal. Which treatment doctors recommend will depend on several factors, such as a woman’s overall health, genetics, the biology of the tumor, and more.

Some of the newer treatments for advanced breast cancer include imlunestrant. This treatment, which received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, is the second oral selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD) for adults with estrogen-receptor–positive (ER+), HER2-negative, ESR1-mutated advanced or metastatic breast cancer whose disease has progressed after at least one line of endocrine therapy.

WATCH: New Hope For 70% Of Advanced Breast Cancer Patients

During clinical trials, imlunestrant demonstrated a meaningful improvement in progression-free survival (PFS) as a stand-alone therapy in patients with an ESR1 mutation versus the standard of care endocrine therapy, reducing the risk of disease progression or death by 38%.

For women with a common type of advanced breast cancer — hormone receptor-positive (HR+), HER2-negative (HER2-), a new drug combination — camizestrant plus a CDK4/6 inhibitor reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 56% in patients with HR+ breast cancer and an emerging ESR1 mutation.

Better Understanding Breast Cancer Surgery

Dr. Ann Partridge, an oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, says there are a number of factors to weigh when considering a mastectomy, chief among them is whether breast-conserving surgery (or lumpectomy) is possible. Your doctor will look at the size and features of your tumor as well as your family history in order to make a recommendation.

“When I talk to a woman who comes to me and she has breast cancer, I evaluate what the standard options for treatment for her are, which typically include cutting out the cancer– which is either a lumpectomy if you can get it all with just a little scooping around of the area that’s abnormal or a mastectomy for some women meaning taking the full breast because sometimes these lesions can be very extensive in the breast,” Dr. Partridge explains.

If you’ve had a mastectomy, breast reconstruction is one of the major issues to consider. There are several options available. The reconstruction process can happen at the time of the surgery to remove the breast or later on in the case of implants. Some women opt for no reconstruction, but decide later on that they want reconstruction to restore a sense of self, or simply get back to the way they used to look.

WATCH: Breast Reconstruction: Regaining Your Sense of Self

“Breast reconstruction is about restoring both a woman’s form and her sense of self,” explains Dr. Andrea Pusic, Chief of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. It’s a deeply personal decision, and today’s surgical options can create breasts that look natural and real.

Immediate reconstruction can produce better results than delayed reconstruction, resulting in fewer surgeries. However, it may require a more extended initial hospitalization and recovery time. This long surgery may also have a higher risk of complications, such as infections, than two separate surgeries.

It may be worth noting that “Delayed reconstruction has fewer complications than immediate reconstruction,” Dr. Terry Myckatyn, a plastic surgeon specializing in breast reconstruction, told SurvivorNet.

When implants are used, the procedure can take two to three hours (so the total surgery time would be around five hours). During reconstruction, one can also take one’s own tissue (usually from the belly area) and transfer it to the breast area.

After breast cancer surgery, women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer may also need chemotherapy, radiation, or hormone therapy.

Dr. Myckatyn emphasizes that the process is collaborative: “It’s a shared decision-making process between the patient and the physician. The patient needs to advocate for herself and make her goals clear. The physician needs to provide clear, logical, evidence-based explanations for their recommendations.”

WATCH: How some women may keep their breast size and shape in cancer surgery.

Plastic surgeons typically reconstruct breasts using either implants or tissue taken from another part of the body—such as the back, abdomen, or inner thigh. This tissue-based approach, known as a flap procedure, often produces breasts that look and feel more natural than implants and can change with your body over time, for example, with weight gain or loss.

However, flap procedures involve more extensive surgery, longer recovery, and additional scarring—both at the breast and at the donor site. They may also weaken muscles where tissue is taken, and not all patients are candidates. Women who smoke or have certain health conditions, such as poorly controlled diabetes, circulation problems, or connective tissue disorders, may not be eligible.

Implant-based reconstruction usually requires fewer surgeries, smaller incisions, and less scarring, allowing for a quicker return to daily life. The trade-off is that implants don’t adapt to body changes, which can make them look less natural over time. Implants also carry risks of leakage or rupture, which would require replacement.

Every surgical option comes with risks. Understanding those risks—and weighing them against your personal goals—is essential before making a decision.

Another aspect of breast cancer surgery involves the possibility of sparing the nipple.

WATCH: Understanding Nipple-Sparing Mastectomies

During a nipple-sparing mastectomy, doctors use special techniques to remove a woman’s breast, leaving the skin and the nipple intact. The idea is to maintain, as close as possible anyway, the natural look of the breast. After a mastectomy, a plastic surgeon will use either an implant or the woman’s own tissue to recreate the breast. When a woman’s own tissue is used, doctors typically take it from fat in the patient’s lower abdomen.

“Nipple-sparing mastectomy, or nipple-preserving mastectomy, differentiates itself from the traditional mastectomy where the nipple was not saved,” Dr. Irene Wapnir, a surgical oncologist and breast surgeon at Stanford University Medical Center, explains to SurvivorNet.

“It’s the ideal procedure for those women who choose to have prophylactic mastectomy who don’t yet have breast cancer, who will choose that route because they have a strong family history of breast cancer, or if they’ve been tested and are a carrier of a mutation, a gene mutation, that predisposes them to a much higher risk of developing breast cancer,” Dr. Wapnir explains.

What If You Have the BRCA Gene Mutation?

We briefly discussed that some women choose to get a preventative mastectomy if they are at higher risk of breast and ovarian cancer. One way to know if you’re at higher risk is if genetic testing reveals you have the BRCA gene mutation.

Discovering a genetic mutation can be unsettling, but there are several options available to manage cancer risk effectively. These include enhanced screenings for early detection, prophylactic (risk-reducing) surgery to remove high-risk tissue, and chemoprevention—the use of medications designed to lower the chances of developing cancer.

Interestingly, for individuals diagnosed with ovarian cancer, carrying a BRCA mutation may provide a treatment advantage when paired with a class of drugs known as PARP inhibitors. Approved by the FDA starting in 2014, these targeted therapies have transformed the landscape of ovarian cancer treatment.

WATCH: Understanding the BRCA Gene Mutation

PARP inhibitors function by blocking the protein PARP, which normally repairs damaged DNA. By preventing this repair process, the inhibitors selectively destroy cancerous cells while sparing healthy ones, making them a powerful treatment tool.

“The PARP inhibitor prevents the repair of the [damaged] single-strand DNA break, and your BRCA mutation prevents the repair of the double-strand DNA break,” explains Dr. Rebecca Arend, Associate Scientist at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, in an interview with SurvivorNet.

This combination of genetic insight and advanced medical therapies highlights how precision medicine continues to evolve, offering more effective, tailored approaches to cancer prevention and treatment.

What to Consider When Weighing Preventive Mastectomy?

A prophylactic, or preventative, mastectomy is an operation where the breast tissue is removed to prevent cancer from developing in the future.

“Risk-reducing mastectomies are an operation where we take women at, usually, very high risk for getting breast cancer, for genetic mutation carriers, who are the ones at the highest risk; there’s unfortunately only one way to actually prevent breast cancer,” Dr. Port tells SurvivorNet.

WATCH: What to Consider When Thinking About a Mastectomy

“Women who are found to test positive for a genetic mutation really have two options,” Dr. Port explains. “One is what’s called high-risk surveillance, which means we check them every six months or so, mammograms, MRIs, with the hope that if God forbid, they develop breast cancer, we pick it up early. But that’s not prevention; it’s early detection.

“Early detection is a goal; it’s not a guarantee. For the woman who wants to be more proactive about actually preventing breast cancer, or as we say, reducing her risk, unfortunately, the only way to do that is to remove the actual tissue at risk, and that is the breast tissue,” she adds.

Some women decide to have their breasts reconstructed and have implants put in right after the mastectomy, while others don’t have reconstruction at all.

The benefits of a prophylactic or preventative surgery are:

• Significant reduction in cancer risk (from 80-90% to 1-2%)
• Nipples can often be spared
• Women can get reconstruction at the same time

Breast Cancer Symptoms & Self-Exams

Women are encouraged to do regular self-exams to become familiar with how their breasts feel normally, so when something unusual, like a lump, does form, it can be easily detected. A self-exam includes pressing your fingertips along your breast in a circular motion.

For some women, that means going to their doctor and walking through what a self-breast exam looks like, so they know what normal breast tissue feels like, so if they do feel something abnormal, whether it’s a lump or discharge from the nipple, they know what to ask and what to look for.

Below are common symptoms to look out for:

• New lump in the breast or underarm (armpit)
• Any change in the size or shape of the breast
• Swelling of all or part of the breast
• Skin dimpling or peeling
• Breast or nipple pain
• Nipple turning inward
• Redness or scaliness of the breast or nipple skin
• Nipple discharge (not associated with breastfeeding

When to Screen for Breast Cancer

The medical community has a broad consensus that women should have annual mammograms between the ages of 45 and 54. However, an independent panel of experts called the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) is saying that women should now start getting mammograms every other year at the age of 40, suggesting that this lowered age for breast cancer screening could save 19% more lives.

The American Cancer Society recommends getting a mammogram every other year for women 55 and older. However, women in this age group who want added reassurance can still get annual mammograms.

WATCH: When you’re getting a mammogram, ask about dense breasts.

Women with a strong family history of breast cancer, a genetic mutation known to increase the risk of breast cancer, such as a BRCA gene mutation, or a medical history, including chest radiation therapy before the age of 30, are considered at higher risk for breast cancer.

Experiencing menstruation at an early age (before 12) or having dense breasts can also put you into a high-risk category. If you are at a higher risk of developing breast cancer, you should begin screening earlier.

Questions For Your Doctor

• What stage is my cancer, and how does that affect my treatment plan?
• What are the recommended chemotherapy options for triple-negative breast cancer, and what side effects should I expect?
• Are there any clinical trials or emerging treatments I should consider?
• How will treatment affect my fertility, physical activity, or ability to work?
• What follow-up care and monitoring will I need?

Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.

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