Latest news with #bloodCancer
ABC News
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Magda Szubanski has a rare stage four blood cancer. What is mantle cell lymphoma?
Australian actor Magda Szubanski, best-known for her iconic role as Sharon in Kath and Kim, has been diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer. The 64-year-old announced her diagnosis of stage four mantle cell lymphoma on social media on Thursday afternoon. Here's what we know about the disease and how it's treated. Mantle cell lymphoma is a type of blood cancer. It begins in the lymphatic system, which helps to fight disease and infection via a network of lots of tiny tubes throughout the body. It affects the outer edge — also known as the mantle zone — of a type of white blood cell called B-cells or B lymphocytes, the Leukaemia Foundation says. What this means is that the body is making abnormal B-cells, British charity Cancer Research UK's website says. When someone has mantle cell lymphoma, these B-cells don't work properly, so they can't fight infection like they normally would. And these abnormal cells build up in the lymph nodes or in other body parts. "They form tumours and begin to cause problems within the lymphatic system or the organ where they are growing," Cancer Research UK says. Mantle cell lymphoma is one of about 60 sub-types of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, the Cancer Council's website says. Szubanski said her cancer was discovered incidentally via a breast screen, which she'd had after "feeling pretty ratshit for ages". The first sign of this type of cancer is generally painless swelling in the neck, armpit or groin. "Multiple lymph nodes may be affected as well as other sites of the body including the spleen, bone marrow, blood, tonsils and adenoids, liver, brain, spinal cord and gastrointestinal tract," the Leukaemia Foundation says. "Mantle cell lymphoma commonly affects the bowel, with worsening diarrhoea often a sign of this." Here are some of the other symptoms the foundation lists: Chemotherapy, radiotherapy and stem cell transplants are among the treatments listed by the Leukaemia Foundation. "Treatment is often successful initially, however relapses are common," the foundation says. "New treatments for mantle cell lymphoma are being researched all the time in clinical trials in some Australian hospitals." Szubanski echoed this in her post to fans. "I've started one of the best treatments available (the Nordic protocol)," she said. "I'm lucky to be getting absolutely world-class care here in Melbourne." She said the treatment would give her immune system "a hammering" and leave her immunocompromised. Stage 4 cancer means the cancer has spread to other areas of the body, the Cancer Insititue NSW website says. It's the highest stage on the scale, which ranges from stage 0 to stage 4. Stage 4 cancer is also called metastatic or advanced cancer. Szubanski's announcement was met with an immediate outpouring of support from her entertainment colleagues and fans. It prompted others to share their experience with the disease in the comments section of her Instagram post. Here are a few of the comments offering insight into mantle cell lymphoma treatment: "I was diagnosed with Mantle cell lymphoma ten years ago! I was 57 at the time, I had 7 strong chemos over 7 months & a stem cell transplant!! I'm still here!! It's a lot & Mantle cell is an unusual one but medicine today is amazing! I'm fighting fit & I believe in my glass being half full!! I'm sending so much love to you & you will get through it!! I ended up with curly hair!!!! Xoxo" "My dad was diagnosed with Stage 4 Mantle Cell Lymphoma in 2021. He went through chemo, and had been in remission for three years when we found out this last Christmas it was back, but not as aggressively. He started chemo again and will finish this week! He's doing amazingly, and I know you will too!" "My brother was diagnosed with the same 15 years ago. Back then Google said it had a 4 % survival rate. His treatment started with his stem cell then the Nordic Protocol and finally stem cell from your brother. We just celebrated his 70th last year in Langkawi Malaysia and he is fighting fit. Off all meds. Married 4 years ago. Loving life 💕👍🏻 Trust the process 💕"
RNZ News
19-05-2025
- Health
- RNZ News
Budget could be 'matter of life or death' for some patients, advocate says
Patient Voice Aotearoa chair Malcolm Mulholland. Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham For some cancer patients, the Budget could literally be a matter of life-or-death. Patient Voice Aotearoa chair Malcolm Mulholland will lead a delegation of blood cancer patients to Parliament on Thursday to see if the Budget will deliver on the government's promise they "won't be forgotten". The backlash after last year's Budget failed to include funding for National's pre-election promise of extra cancer treatments forced the gvernment a couple of months later to produce another $604m for Pharmac over four years. That welcome investment allowed Pharmac to fund a range of drugs for patients with solid tumours - but increased inequities for blood cancer patients, Mulholland said. "Blood cancer patients haven't had anything. If we look at just multiple myeloma for example, 450 people are diagnosed every year, but there's been no new drug funded since 2014. That to me is criminal." While the previous Health Minister Dr Shane Reti had given his assurances that blood cancer patients "would not be forgotten", his replacement, Simeon Brown, has made no commitments. Brown's only pre-Budget announcement has been an extra $164m for after-hours GPs and urgent care in targeted regions. While welcoming the support, GP leaders noted primary care in general needed a massive cash injection. A Health NZ briefing to Dr Reti in January 2024, projected a $173m shortfall in funding to GPs for the year, and estimated primary care needed a boost of between $353m and $1.4b to address "unmet need". General Practice NZ chair Bryan Betty said the capitation funding model - the way the government funds general practices based on the number and age of enrolled patients - was 20 years old and "no longer fit for purpose". "General practice is faced with a lot more complexity in terms of patients, patients who are not being seen in the hospital and they're expecting general practice to pick up and deal with, and also the volume of what we're actually seeing." General Practice NZ chair Bryan Betty. Photo: Supplied Dr Betty, a family doctor in Porirua, said the last capitation uplift was not enough to cover inflation, so the government allowed GPs to raise their fees. "There is concern about the amount of money people are paying to see their GP now, so I think we have to avoid shifting cost to patients." However, the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, which represents senior hospital doctors and dentists, said there was not a single area of health, which was not "desperate" for more money. Its director of policy and research, Harriet Wild, said there was little point pumping more money into primary care without balancing it up with more investment in secondary services. "For example, if you're going to invest in primary care, but you're not going to invest in secondary and hospital care, you're going to get more people needing and gaining hospital referrals to have their conditions managed and treated. But if there isn't a complementary investment in secondary care, there's not going to be anyone to manage them." With every health budget, it was "not so much where the money is going - it's where it's coming from", she noted. "It's all about savings, it's all about ending time-limited funding. Re-appropriating is the name of the game. And I think we'll continue to see more of that in 2025." Last year's Budget included an extra $16b over four years to meet cost pressures. However, Wild said that was not enough. Analysis by leading health economist Peter Huskinson found day-to-day government spend per person on health actually dropped 3 percent last year. "We are estimating that Budget 2025 is going to need an extra $2b in operational funding, just to stand still," Wild said. "Our members are constantly being asked to do more with less, and then they're asked to do more again." Health systems expert Professor Robin Gauld - who moved from Otago to Bond University in Australia this year - said there was never enough money for health. Health systems expert Professor Robin Gauld. Photo: RNZ / Ian Telfer "And [what] governments will always claim is big new investments, which there probably is - but it will be dealing with shortfalls and inflation adjustments and targeted to certain areas." Instead of just shovelling more money into a broken system, the government needed to fund research to re-design it, Professor Gauld said. He has proposed a national health insurance model like Singapore's (which works a bit like ACC), which would take the health budget out of the hands of politicians. "In Singapore, they're working really hard to solve problems with a long-range view. It's not a political bun-fight or a game like it is in New Zealand. "Here's it's a political game for people who then walk away and go on to other jobs, having said that they did 'a great job'. "They blame their successors, and their successors blame the forebears, instead of all working together in a Singaporean way to try and actually improve population health and the system that supports it." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
