For Roxanne Camanyag, it started with recurring nightmares. The fourth-year Design | Media Arts student began experiencing them twice a week, gradually having partial seizures during the day as well.
“It would happen in class, in the car,” she said. “I wouldn’t collapse but just stop and freeze. My mind would blank out for a moment, and I’d come back and be a little confused by where I am.”
Camanyag would soon join the many students at UCLA living with cancer. Her cousin, who is a psychiatrist, referred her to a neurologist where an MRI scan revealed a fist-sized tumor impinging on her brain.
Finally, a biopsy identified the culprit: anaplastic astrocytoma, which attacks cells that provide nutrition and support to the brain’s neurons. To classify the cancer by increasing malignancy, the World Health Organization established a four-tiered system ““ most Tier I patients do not survive more than three years past the initial diagnosis, and Tier IV cases average around 12 months. Camanyag is Tier III.
Nonetheless, she plods along with an almost surreal cheer, blithely interlocking her fingers to demonstrate how the entrenched tumor made surgery impossible.
“Oh, man, I love my doctor, and I like it when they explain things in a simple way,” Camanyag said. “The neurosurgeon went, “˜It’s basically like this, but I can’t remove it if it’s like this, though.’ And all I could think was, “˜You, sir, are a brilliant man!'”
However, the initial realization does not go quite as smoothly for everyone. First-year microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics student Amalia Reina noticed that she began tiring quickly during figure skating practice, eventually becoming unable to finish even a short one-minute program. Suspecting she may be anemic, Reina’s coach suggested she seek medical attention.
“I was with my mom, and then the doctor was explaining to me that something about my cells weren’t normal,” she said. “I didn’t know what was going on, but then, seeing my mom crying, that’s when I realized it was serious.”
Reina had leukemia, a bone marrow cancer that relegated her to home-schooling. Even after returning for her junior year of high school, the subsequent rounds of chemotherapy made Reina prone to infections that sent her bouncing back and forth to the hospital. The regimen involved getting intravenous treatment on a “four days on, four days off” basis that caused her hair to fall out.
Leslie Cooper, a coordinator at The Wellness Community branch in Pasadena, said adolescents with cancer face unique challenges.
“For teens and younger people, being different from friends is difficult: looking different, missing out on events and school, and having less energy than their peers,” she said.
For Camanyag, the challenge was telling family and friends the news, but she said their reactions have been very supportive.
“It brought a lot of my family closer together, a lot of my friends closer,” she said. “This is actually a lot more prevalent than most people realize.”
She said that, when she tells people about having cancer, people often empathize because relatives or friends are going through similar situations.
Reina’s illness proved to be a hidden blessing as well, becoming an important part of her life that provided material for college admissions essays. Thrilled by her acceptance to UCLA, Reina chose to pursue microbiology in hopes of helping others in her situation.
“The doctors were really nice and positive, and they know that I’m in school,” she said. “They talk to me and want to help me get into medical school since most of them graduated from here.”
Both Reina and Camanyag took part in the recent Relay for Life at UCLA, an event promoting awareness of survivors and those currently living with cancer. But whenever the conversation broaches her personal struggles, Camanyag gamely deflects the attention to loved ones.
“There are other people there,” she said. “There are people who give up their time and commitment to make sure that I’m alive. They give me a lot, so I want to give something back. These are the people I need to live … to survive, you know?”
With reports from Adrienne Law, Bruin contributor