Mantle Cell Lymphoma: Magda Szubanski’s cancer diagnosis explained
Australian actor Magda Szubanski has been diagnosed with a rare, aggressive and incurable blood cancer. Experts explain what it is and what treatments are available.
There’s been an outpouring of support for Magda Szubanski following the popular actor’s shock announcement that she has Stage 4 Mantle Cell lymphoma; a little known and rare form of blood cancer.
“I won’t sugar-coat it: it’s rough. But I’m hopeful. I’m being lovingly cared for by friends and family, my medical team is brilliant, and I’ve never felt more held by the people around me,” she says in a post on social media that attracted tens of thousands of likes in just a few hours.
Her news has left many people wondering more about the disease which is said to make up around five to 10 per cent of all non-Hodgkins Lymphomas, and can affect people of any age.
Scientists estimate only around 300 Australians will be diagnosed with Mantle Cell lymphoma in any given year. Unlike many other cancers, there are no screening programs available for blood cancer and, according to the Leukemia Foundation, there is no way to prevent blood cancer through lifestyle change.
“Mantle Cell Lymphoma is one of the rarest subtypes of lymphoma, and lymphoma is a cancer that has more than 80 different subtypes,” says Sharon Winton, the chief executive officer of Lymphoma Australia.
“It’s also a cancer of our white blood cells, so our immune system, and lymphoma is the sixth most common cancer in Australia.”
Mantle Cell Lymphoma rarely has any symptoms until it has advanced and spread to other parts of the body. It makes early diagnosis particularly tricky. When symptoms eventually do present, they may be in the form of increased infections, intense night sweats, unexplained fatigue, or swollen lymph nodes.
“Unfortunately with lymphoma we don’t have any screening tests or preventative measures for it,” Winton says. “So, in Magda’s case, she knew she wasn’t feeling right so she went and actually asked for more testing to be done, which was the best thing that she could have done.”
The Leukemia Foundation provides support directly to patients affected by blood cancer, including those with Mantle Cell lymphoma.
“We provide emotional support, practical support in the form of transport assistance, grocery vouchers, accommodation for those regional and rural patients and we also provide grief and bereavement support as well,” says Jodie Chaplin, the foundation’s clinical services manager.
She says the best way to support someone through treatment is just to be there to help and listen.
“Offer to take them to treatments or to appointments, offer to cook them a meal; just be there for people, let them talk about what they’re going through.”
Szubanski says her cancer was discovered by chance during a breast scan which indicated she had swollen lymph nodes. She had been feeling rundown, so requested additional blood tests which eventually led to her diagnosis.
Mantle Cell Lymphoma is incurable but patients can be treated for it. Szubanski says she is receiving what’s known as the “Nordic Protocol”, which can be a particularly brutal type of therapy.
Doctor Adrian Minson is a hematologist with the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne.
“The Nordic Protocol … it’s kind of a package of chemotherapy for about four to five months, then high dose chemotherapy, then a stem cell transplant and that’s still largely our standard in Australia,” he says.
“But there have been a number of advances over the years, and we are now starting to use more targeted therapies in the first line treatment setting. We’re also looking at ways to avoid the need for that very high dose chemotherapy and stem cell transplant through the use of genomic testing.
“Most of the evidence suggests that we’re still not great at curing Mantle Cell lymphoma, but we are getting much better at sequentially treating it; so giving patients multiple periods of remission and those are very long periods and can be decades.”
While a lot of unknowns remain when it comes to lymphoma more broadly, the scientific advances that have been made in recent years have been encouraging and the work is ongoing.
It’s work that brings comfort to Szubanski who acknowledged the efforts of scientists in her post.
Szubanski is best known for her role as the sports-mad but unlucky in love Sharon Strzelecki in the hit TV show Kath & Kim and for her role in the comedy sketch show Fast Forward.
Szubanski has appealed to people to keep their distance if they see her in the street, explaining the treatment she is undertaking means her immune system is vulnerable.
She also made one caveat that few would dare argue with; “For now, just know I’m in good hands, good spirits — but I reserve my yuman right to be a cranky old moll.”
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