4:10
- wellness
- May 25, 2020
Father with brain cancer opens up on his battle
Nicholas was diagnosed with stage four glioblastoma in July 2017.
Video by Elisa Tang
4:10
\"I don't like to post too many sad things -- not that they don't happen -- but I think it just could be an inspiration that hey, if this guy with a brain tumor is enjoying life, what do we really have to be upset about?\"
The month of May is National Brain Cancer Awareness month, and Nicholas said he believes there is a desperate need for more awareness around brain cancer, specifically glioblastoma.
\"I don't think many people think of, know what a glioblastoma is or really know much about brain cancers in general,\" he said. Nicholas said living with brain cancer gives him the responsibility to share his story and hopes others battling the disease will do the same.
\"I'm always going to be an ambassador for it,\" he said of his illness. \"I just think speaking out on it would help out and then being as active as you can, whether it's to your hospitals or down to the senators to get money because funding is where big things actually happen.\"
Vogelbaum said research for glioblastoma treatment is difficult for several reasons. \"There's really no other area of cancer drug development where you don't take samples of treated tissue to understand what the treatment is doing,\" he said. \"It's harder for us to do that in glioblastoma patients, but that is still necessary nonetheless.\"
He said \"direct delivery of therapeutics to the brain\" is also necessary. \"There needs to be an understanding that there is no way to establish a timeline to success in any field of medicine, particularly in cancer,\" he explained. Vogelbaum said that in past decades, melanoma was the other untreatable cancer that produced many \"terrible and unpredictable outcomes.\"
\"Then along came immunotherapy and targeted therapy, BRAF targeted therapy, and that's completely changed the way that we approach melanoma, to the point where for many patients now it's a very treatable disease,\" he continued. \"That happened in a very short time when there were a lot of other things have been tried and failed. Eventually, the right thing was found. We have to have the same kind of optimistic approach to glioblastoma.\"
He said researchers must continue to keep trying new approaches to further understand the biology of this cancer.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/GMA/osmond-nicholas-01-ht-jt-200518_hpEmbed_3x4_384.jpg\")
Nicholas' diagnosis has completely changed his perspective on life. \"I've become a little more introspective and just become much more at peace with life in general,\" he said. \"Some people focus on, 'Oh, I just want to live to 100 years' and all that. I feel like being diagnosed with glioblastoma ... I just want to live to have a great day today and live as long as I can. Just to take advantage of that.\"
His illness has also reinforced his understanding of the fragility of life.
\"The only thing I can guarantee is that we're all going to die, so use what you have,\" he added. \"There's a little thing that we used in the brain tumor group, we call like, 'the best group that we never want to ever be a part of,' and I totally wouldn't want to be a part of this group if I could not, but since I am, it has changed my life.\"
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/GMA/osmond-nicholas-05-ht-jt-200518_hpEmbed_3x4_384.jpg\")
\"I don't think I see things rosier, but I think I see it more as the perspective of it all comes back to -- you can die any day, so live your life for each day, every day.\"
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