What Disease Does Lois Have in ‘Superman & Lois’? Cancer Diagnosis Explained

‘Superman & Lois‘ episode 2 of Season 3 was emotionally charged and is set to turn the life of the Kent family upside down. The situation, however, has nothing to do with villains, crime, or small-town drama. Instead, it deals with something that is beyond even Superman’s powers. Lois was diagnosed with the horrific disease, which left the tightly-knit family in shock. Due to this, we’ve decided to analyze this in a bit more detail. So let’s see, what kind of disease Lois got diagnosed with? 

Lois Lane got diagnosed with Stage III inflammatory breast cancer. This type of cancer is very aggressive and very rare and usually doesn’t have normal symptoms associated with breast cancer. Luckily for Lois, cancer was discovered relatively early, which certainly helps things out. Still, due to the nature of her diagnosis, the odds of her beating the disease are still unknown.

Now that we’ve summed up Lois’ condition, it’s time to see what the implications are for the whole family. If you’re interested in more, stay with us and keep reading!

Lois Lane discovered her diagnosis by pure luck 

During the first episode of Season 3 of Superman & Lois, we see Lois getting in contact with the sister of the deceased John Henry Irons. His sister just happened to be a doctor, and to get an opportunity to talk to her, Lois scheduled the appointment like any other patient would, and she revealed that she had been experiencing symptoms for quite some time. The symptoms in question were fatigue and breast pain. 

Normally, when it comes to women of childbearing age, these symptoms are most often associated with pregnancy. So both Dr. Irons and Lois initially suspected that she and Clark would welcome another addition to the family. Lois and Clark were scared to have another child but were excited. Only by the end of episode 1 was it revealed that Lois is not pregnant after all, and the doctor would like to run some additional tests. 

Lois was diagnosed with stage 3 inflammatory breast cancer

The second episode starts with Lois being diagnosed with the disease. We can see her undergoing several tests, and in one of the scenes, we can see the bandaged area where a tissue sample was removed for testing to confirm the diagnosis. 

It would be an understatement to say that Lois was scared. She kept her diagnosis a secret for as long as possible, attempting to deal with it herself mentally. By the end of the episode, she revealed that cancer in question is inflammatory breast cancer, stage 3. 

According to cancer.org, inflammatory breast cancer is rare, but most often, it targets women of childbearing age. It is a form of aggressive cancer and usually does not show symptoms that would be associated with other forms of breast cancer. Like all other forms of cancer in general, the diagnosis time is crucial to successful treatment, although women diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer generally tend to have a worse prognosis than women diagnosed with other types of breast cancer. 

Lois has quite the battle in front of her, and we hate to say it, but the series’ storyline follows a similar storyline from the comics where Lois likewise was diagnosed with cancer. 

At first, Lois hid her diagnosis from Clark 

Scared and faced with an uncontrollable force, Lois was silent about what she was dealing with for most of the episode. Clark figures something is wrong, but he simply assumes Lois is sad that she isn’t pregnant. He discovers that she has cancer by accident when he attempts to save Judge Reagan from suicide. During the ordeal, Lois reveals to Judge Reagan that she has cancer and is just as scared as Reagan. 

It was quite a shock for Clark. Usually, every time problem arises, he can use his superpowers to deal with it for the most part. But there’s no easy way to approach this, and for the first time in his life, perhaps, he feels helpless. On the other hand, Lois hid her prognosis because she didn’t want to appear weak and sick in front of the stronger man in the world. 

Lois and Clark broke the news to Jordan and Jonathan, and we will see the aftermath of the revelation next week when Episode 3 of Season 3 of Superman and Lois airs. 

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