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Beloved Australian actor, Magda Szubanski, has revealed she’s been diagnosed with a “very rare, very aggressive, very serious” blood cancer called mantle cell lymphoma.
In a post on social media on Thursday, Szubanski said she would be starting treatment in a few weeks for the stage 4 cancer, which she called “one of the nasty ones, unfortunately.”
So, what is mantle cell lymphoma? And how is it treated?
What is mantle cell lymphoma?
There are more than 100 subtypes of blood cancers, but they are commonly divided into one of two groups. These are based on where they originate: leukemias develop in the bone marrow, and lymphomas develop in the lymphatic system.
Lymphomas develop from white blood cells (lymphocytes), which circulate in the blood and lymphatic system and help fight infection.
You may not have heard of the lymphatic system, but it plays a key role in your immune response.
The lymphatic circulatory system is responsible for transporting fluids (lymph) around your body. Lymph comes from blood plasma, and helps remove waste from your tissues.
As part of the lymphatic system, tissues like the spleen and thymus help produce many of the immune cells you use to fight infections.
These cells are then housed in specialized organs called lymph nodes—small pea-sized glands located throughout your body.
Lymph nodes are kind of like the “war room” of your immune system.
Your body contains hundreds of lymph nodes, and each contains millions of lymphocytes. These include the T and B cells—the main fighting cells in adaptive immunity.
If B cells in an area of the lymph node known as the “mantle zone” become cancerous, it is called mantle cell lymphoma.
How rare is it?
In 2020, there were 330 cases of mantle cell lymphoma diagnosed in Australia, accounting for a small fraction (5%) of lymphoma cases.
Overall, lymphomas account for around one in 20 new cancer diagnoses. This makes mantle cell lymphoma quite rare.
Mantle cell lymphoma is about three times more common in men than in women, and mostly affects people over the age of 60.
Is there a cure?
Unfortunately, mantle cell lymphoma is largely considered incurable with the therapies currently available.
Like many cancers, mantle cell lymphoma can vary in how quickly