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From Judge Frank Caprio opening up about his diagnosis of pancreatic cancer and treatment to an “Ink Master” star dying from testicular cancer, here’s what’s going on in the oncology space this week.
Judge Frank Caprio, who is known for his humor and compassion on the TV show “Caught in Providence,” which became increasingly popular with the advent of social media, recently discussed his pancreatic cancer diagnosis with CBS News.
In a December 2023 Instagram post, Caprio announced that he received a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. He then received radiation treatment at Baptist Health South Florida.
"It's not a pleasant experience to go to bed at night, say your prayers. And suddenly you have one extra thing you have to ask for. And that is, please help the treatment be successful for the pancreatic cancer. And I think we're on the way," said Caprio, who is 87 years old and retired from the show in 2023.
Ryan Hadley, star of the reality show, “Ink Master,” died at age 46 from testicular cancer. The father of six revealed in December that he had been undergoing treatment with chemotherapy.
“I am now hospitalized to doing the chemotherapy way earlier than I anticipated,” he had written on Instagram. “The last time I went through with this, it nearly killed me and scared the hell outta me.”
Later, he opened up about his treatment and stated that his chemotherapy treatment was not working, leading to cancer metastasis (spreading) in his liver and lungs.
“This is a non-treatable cancer in my liver and death is the outcome,” he wrote in a separate Instagram post. “I may be around for another week or maybe another three months, either way, it tears me apart that I'm leaving my children behind. Death doesn't scare me in any way… it's the fact of abandonment with my kids is what pisses me off and there's nothing I can do about it. I'll keep everyone updated to a certain point in all this. I'll be signing off very soon forever."
Lyndsey Ainscough, a 40-year-old mother of three, told BBC that journalist Dame Deborah James helped save her life from colorectal cancer. The journalist received a diagnosis of incurable colorectal cancer in 2016 and later died from the disease in June 2022.
“I remember being in the kitchen ironing and [James] came on the news and she just mentioned something that caught my attention,” Ainscough said to BBC. “And I turned to my husband and said: 'Those are the symptoms I've been getting, maybe I've got [colorectal] cancer.'”
Ainscough experienced bleeding and fatigue, although she believed these to be symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome. When she visited her doctor, he immediately sent her to receive a colonoscopy, she explained.
After being told she wasn’t eligible to receive surgery to remove the two-inch tumor, she was treated with an immunotherapy regimen during a clinical trial. In January 2023, she was deemed cancer-free.
“I felt like I’d been given another chance,” Ainscough said. “A miracle.”
Ray Zahab, a cancer survivor and ultramarathoner who starred in a documentary produced by Matt Damon about a trek through the African desert, plans on running more than 100 miles through Death Valley.
Zahab, 55, was diagnosed with lymphoma two years ago and continued running through his treatments for the disease. According to a post on Instagram, the athlete went through six months of chemotherapy.
"I was going to just spend each month between chemo being as fit as I possibly could and go do something epic," he said to Business Insider.
Now, his cancer is in remission, so he plans to run 111 miles through Death Valley — a national park in California and Nevada known for being America’s lowest, hottest and driest national park in the country, according to the National Park Service. In fact, temperatures in the park can reach up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
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