Remembering Actress Suzanne Somers, Who Battled Breast Cancer, As ‘Step By Step’ Cast Reunion Coming Soon: ‘You Made Quite a Ripple My Friend Thank You’

The upcoming reunion will mark the cast’s first gathering since their beloved cast member’s passing, which prompted Somers’ fellow actors and actresses to speak out.

Just one day after Somers’ death, 74-year-old actor Patrick Duffy, who played Frank Lambert (the husband of Somers’ character on ‘Step by Step’), took to Instagram to say, “As with everyone who knew her, I was stunned yesterday by the news that my dear and deep friend Suzanne had passed. For that brief moment it was unbelievable. But indeed she has passed. She beautifully passed through my life on this leg of her endless journey. My task now is to remain on the roadside as she continues on.

“Of course I will miss the phone calls, the emails, the visits, and the meals and laughter. But the dialogue of deep and thoughtful, and silly and frivolous continues. My conversations with her now will be held solely through my daily Buddhist practice.”

He continued, “I am not alone in wishing I had one more face-to-face with her and Alan, but had we had that meeting last Friday I would still be yearning for just one more today. It is the painful beauty of our present human reality.

“What strength and support I can muster I send to Alan and Bruce and her family and to her I say; When the stone of your life dropped in this pond you made quite a ripple my friend. Thank you.”

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A post shared by Patrick Duffy (@therealpduffy)

Meanwhile, actress Christine Lakin, 44, who played Alicia “Al” Lambert on “Step by Step,” also shared a heartfelt post on Instagram following Somers’ death.

Alongside a photo of her and the late actress, she wrote, “She was easily the most glamorous person I’d ever met. Her warmth and humor was what made her so real and down to earth to everyone she crossed paths with. She was an icon yes, but she was also an inspiration in the early fight for equal pay in the entertainment industry.

“She was an author, a survivor, a speaker and an incredible entrepreneur. She was a 2nd mom of sorts to me in the formative years of my childhood. She had the best relationship with Patrick Duffy and the two of the them set the tone for what was an idyllic set experience. She was goofy and self deprecating which made her beauty disarming.”

Lakin concluded, “She had an excitement for life that was and will always be inspiring. I feel so lucky to have crossed paths with this wonderful woman. It’s hard to believe she’s gone from this lifetime. Rest in peace.”

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A post shared by Christine Lakin (@yolakin)

Staci Keanan, 48, who played Dana Foster on the popular sitcom, also praised Somers in the wake of her passing, telling People, “She was universally adored on the set of ‘Step by Step,’ and when anyone asked what it was like to work with her, I found myself saying often that to know her was to love her.

“Along with her many creative gifts, Suzanne was also a brilliant business person. As her ‘TV daughter,’ she was so warm and nurturing towards me. I thought she was just flawless. I will miss her, but was just lucky to have known her.”

Suzanne Somer’s Cancer Battles

Somers fought skin cancer in her 30s, and twenty years later in her 50s, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

It’s known that her breast cancer was stage 2, so it was caught relatively early, and since then, she has bravely shared her battle with her fans, and also sparking some controversy in regard to her treatment decisions. Experts warn that women should absolutely, under no circumstance, ever substitute approved treatments backed by data and, or FDA registered clinical trials, for alternative, unproven treatments, and that doing so is extremely dangerous.

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“What I wanted to do was less controversial than implants,” Somers told SurvivorNet in a previous interview. “I was restoring my breast exactly as it was prior to the surgery.”

In Somer’s opinion, the treatment route a person takes is their own choice. But as SurvivorNet’s experts often warn, alternative medicine is never a replacement for traditional medicine that’s backed by science. And Somers has said that treatment is a personal decision that should be discussed with a doctor.

Following Somers’ passing, People confirmed the actress died at 5:30 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 15, after breast cancer spread throughout her body. A death certificate obtained by The Blast revealed Somers’ breast cancer had metastasized to her brain. Somers’ death certificate also noted some underlying conditions that led to her death, as high blood pressure and hydrocephalus, the buildup of fluid in the brain’s ventricles.

Losing a Friend to Cancer

Grief is inevitable and essential when you’re forced to say goodbye to a loved one, especially if you’re losing that person to cancer, like in the case of the “Step by Step’ cast, losing their friend Suzanne Somers to breast cancer.

Everyone’s grief journey looks and feels different, but therapy and support groups can also be wonderful options to explore. It is also important to keep in mind that time doesn’t heal everything, but it certainly helps.

‘Therapy Saved My Life’: After Losing a Loved One, Don’t be Afraid to Ask for Help

In an earlier interview with SurvivorNet, Camila Legaspi shared her own advice on grief after her mother died of breast cancer. For her, therapy made all the difference.

“Therapy saved my life,” Legaspi said. “I was dealing with some really intense anxiety and depression at that point. It just changed my life. Because I was so drained by all the negativity that was going on, going to a therapist helped me realize that there was still so much out there for me, that I still had my family, that I still had my siblings.”

Breast cancer survivor Carrie Kreiswirth explains how her support system helped her

How To Reduce the Risk Of A Breast Cancer Recurrence

While the chance of breast cancer recurrence varies based on the biology of the tumor, the stage it was when diagnosed and the treatment received, according to the Susan G. Komen organization, “Most people diagnosed with breast cancer will never have a recurrence.”  That’s the good news.

RELATED: Reducing Breast Cancer Recurrence Risk

“Once a patient has finished his or her active therapy for breast cancer, we will often refer to that time as breast cancer survivorship,” says Dr. Erica Mayer, a breast cancer medical oncologist at Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

“This is a time when patients are still being actively monitored by their treatment team, not only to ensure that they remain healthy and cancer-free in the years ahead, but also making sure that they have recovered from any side effects of their initial treatment, and that they are pursuing healthy behaviors for example, getting regular exercise, eating a healthy diet, and keeping up with all their other routine medical care.”

RELATED: Recommendations for a Healthy Lifestyle: One Doctor’s Advice for Cancer Survivors

However, recurrence does happen, so it’s important to do whatever you can to help reduce your risk. Some tips from SurvivorNet experts are: Follow treatment guidelines, maintain a healthy weight, limit alcohol consumption, eat a healthy diet, and exercise.

“The best way to reduce your risk of recurrence with breast cancer is to follow treatment guidelines and complete the course of treatment that’s given,” says Dr. Elisa Port, a surgical oncologist specializing in breast cancer at Mount Sinai, recently sat down with SurvivorNet and offered the following advice.

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As for staying healthy, Port explains, “We know that obesity or being overweight can increase the risk of cancer recurrence in breast cancer. And so I say, maintaining a healthy body weight, whatever that is for the individual… You know, we talk a lot about healthy body weight, and there’s a very big range of this, but there are certain numbers beyond which  it does affect one’s health. So we try to keep people within a range of a healthy body weight.”

Understanding What’s Valid Health Information Online

Knowing that Somers used alternative therapy to combat her breast cancer, it’s important to note that patients who rely on unproven methods outside of the conventional medical realm often end up with fatal consequences; a study released by researchers at Yale University in 2017 revealed that patients with cancer who only use alternative treatments are twice as likely to die from the disease.

How can you know whether the information you read online, especially medical information, is reliable? There are a few ways:

The National Institutes of Health recommends that, as a rule, the sites you get medical information from should be sponsored by federal government agencies. Knowing who or what sponsors and hosts the website you’re reading from is important, too.

• .gov are government agencies
• .edu identifies an educational institution
• .org usually identifies nonprofit organizations
• .com identifies commercial website

Dr. Jason Westin, leader of the diffuse large B-cell lymphoma research team at MD Anderson Cancer Center in the Department of Lymphoma and Myeloma, told SurvivorNet in an earlier interview: “Make sure if you’re finding information on the internet about something that sounds too good to be true, talk to your doctor about it.”

Alternative Therapies: Don’t Believe Everything You Read on the Internet

“Alternative therapies” refer to treatments that people may choose in place of conventional, scientifically backed medicine. These alternative methods can range from mind-body approaches and diet and nutrition choices to supplements, healing crystals, Chinese medicine and Ayurvedic medicine. They’re touted all over the internet, and they often sound too good to be true. And that’e because they probably are, Dr. Westin says.

It’s for a beneficial reason that these therapies aren’t used at comprehensive cancer centers: they haven’t proven themselves effective in clinical trials – rigorous studies that test treatments in the population of people they’re intended to treat. Clinical trials test new treatments for safety and efficacy; every drug or treatment approved for widespread use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has to have gone through multiple phases of clinical trials.

It’s also important to note that the validity of scientific data is determined by whether results can be repeated by other researchers, the sample size of the study and the academic credentials of the researchers and journal where the information is published.

Sometimes, the therapies or supplements you read about on the internet can be OK, and maybe even beneficial, if they’re used with conventional medicine, not in its place. These options make up “complementary medicine,” which, when used in tandem with conventional medicine, is called “integrative medicine.”

The Difference Between Integrative Medicine and Alternative Medicine

Many doctors believe in integrative medicine, so long as they remain in the loop and give their patients the go-ahead before combining anything new with their treatment. But the majority of doctors tend to be in agreement about the fact that these options should never replace conventional treatment.

Even if you aren’t planning on foregoing the treatment that your doctor prescribes as you try out something you read online, it’s absolutely vital that you talk to your doctor first. They are the only ones who will be able to tell you whether that “cancer-curing” supplement is going to interact negatively with your actual treatment. It may, for instance, cause the treatment to be less effective. Or it may wind up being harmful, or cause debilitating side effects.

Contributing: SurvivorNet Staff

Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.

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