Nearly a decade after bravely fighting cancer, Sonali Bendre is revisiting her painful health journey.
The 51-year-old actress made an appearance on the debut episode of Madhuri Dixit’s new show, Kon Honar Crorepati, where she opened up about her battle with metastatic cancer, recalling her painful experience.
The episode saw Dixit saying, “You’ve had so many different experiences. And we also got to see a new side of you when you overcame cancer. We got to see you emerge as a strong Sonali.”
Answering the Dil Toh Pagal Hai actress, Bendre shared that instead of seeing it as a battle she had to win, she focused on understanding her body and learning from what she was going through.
“I mean, you know, actually, we always say that someone has overcome cancer. But, all jokes apart, we say all these things while laughing and joking. But at that time, the actual intention was not to overcome it. It was to understand why this was happening and what I could learn from it. And trust me, I actually learnt a lot from it. And that is how I looked at it,” the Duplicate actress said.
She continued, “Because I feel that when we say we have overcome something, it somehow feels like a fight. There is a sense of negativity somewhere. And, after all, it is our own body, isn’t it? The cancer cells are also our own cells. So, how can we fight with ourselves?”
“So how do I love my body the way it is? And I thought that maybe I should treat it with love. It’s very difficult to love something that was giving you so much pain. But I think that's probably what worked for me. And that’s where it went,” the actress added.
For those unversed, Sonali Bendre was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic cancer in July 2018.
What is metastatic cancer?
Metastatic cancer is any type of cancer that spreads from the area it started to other parts of the body.
Symptoms of metastatic cancer
As per Cleveland Clinic, metastatic cancer symptoms include extreme fatigue, nigh sweats, and unexplained weight loss.
Moreover, some signs of the cancer depends on the location of the primary tumor and where the cancer cells spread, such as bloating and swollen belly in liver metastases, bone pain or fractures in bone metastases, and dizziness, headaches and seizures in brain metastases.
Causes of metastatic cancer
Metastasis happens when cancer cells break from the original tumor and spread to distant areas of the body.
Factors that can trigger metastasis include weakened immune system, hypoxia, lactic acidosis and autophagy.
How is metastatic cancer diagnosed?
Metastatic cancer is diagnosed through a combination of advanced imaging tests, blood work, and tissue biopsies.
Advanced imaging tests include CT scans, MRI scans, PET scans, and bone scans, blood tests include tumor markers, and liquid biopsies.
Treatment for metastatic cancer
When treating metastatic cancer, experts often focus on where the cancer first started, rather than where it has spread. For example, if breast cancer spreads to the lungs, it is still treated with breast cancer medications because the cells are still biologically breast cancer cells.
Treatment options include chemotherapy, immunotherapy, targeted therapy, and hormonal therapy.
