Pause to Process the Situation
Many people describe fear as their first reaction to learning that their cancer is platinum-resistant, says Amy Raedeker, an advanced practice provider and the program director at Mission Cancer + Blood, part of University of Iowa Health Care. Platinum chemotherapy is a go-to treatment for ovarian cancer, so if the tumor returns, it may feel like the “best” treatment didn’t work, she says.
Frustration, sadness, and despair are also common, says Raedeker. So is uncertainty about what treatment options come next and whether the cancer will respond to them, which can feel mentally exhausting.
On top of that, many people are still trying to recover from their previous treatment when they suddenly have to start making new treatment decisions, says Patricia Pedreira, PhD, a postdoctoral associate specializing in psycho-oncology at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina. You may feel overwhelmed while trying to process all of that.
For Amanda Widro, an Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance (OCRA) community member in Baltimore, hearing the news was like a maelstrom. Widro, who was 45 when she was diagnosed with stage 3C ovarian cancer in 2023, experienced a recurrence just six weeks after finishing platinum-based chemotherapy. “I felt like I was in this whirlwind of everything that was going on,” she says.
Something important to remember, Dr. Pedreira says, is that these feelings are normal and don’t mean that you’ve given up or aren’t fighting hard enough. Give yourself time and permission to process what you’re feeling because it’s an important part of coping and healing.
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