Mama June Opens Up About Daughter Anna 'Chickadee's Cancer Prognosis: 'We Know It's Terminal' (Exclusive)

The reality star's eldest daughter was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in January.

Mama June Shannon is opening up about her daughter's cancer battle. While speaking to ET's Deidre Behar, the Mama June: From Not to Hot star revealed how her eldest daughter, Anna "Chickadee" Cardwell, is doing as she battles stage 4 adrenal carcinoma.

"She's actually doing pretty good," Mama June told ET. "She's handling it pretty good."

Lauryn "Pumpkin" Efird agreed, telling ET that her older sister "genuinely is OK."

"She can still go to the grocery store, she can drive herself, she's still able to take the kids to and from places," Lauryn said, before noting that Anna "doesn't have hair, she has no eyebrows, she doesn't have any hair on her arms or anything like that."

Mama June noted that, thus far, Anna has completed four rounds of chemotherapy.

"A lot of people thought that it was gonna make her sick and stuff like that, [but] she's able to bounce back pretty quick," Lauryn said, with her younger sister,  Alana "Honey Boo Boo" Thompson, adding, "It does wear her body down sometimes, but other than that, she's pretty good."

Anna's kids -- Kaitlyn, 10, and Kylee, 7 -- are getting by too.

"The 10-year-old is aware, I don't think she fully understands," Lauryn said of Kaitlyn. "I think she understands that Mommy is sick and Mommy might not be here for a while... She's 10, but she's a lot more mature than that because she's been raised around older people."

Mama June additionally noted, "Kaitlyn was always close with Anna, but now she doesn't go anywhere without Anna. I get that because she's thinking if Anna goes somewhere then maybe Anna might not be at the house when she gets back."

Kylee, however, is "too young to understand" what's going on, according to Alana.

"Yeah," Mama June agreed, "she just knows Mama's sick."

Now that her chemotherapy is over, Anna's next course of treatment for her cancer would be immune therapy or clinical trials, though she's not sure if she'll move forward with either option, according to her mom.

"She just wants to see how it's gonna go," Mama June said of Anna. "We don't know what to expect because the cancer is very aggressive and it grew from nothing to something huge on the left side of her body really fast."

Mama June admitted that it's "scary" that they don't know "what is going to happen next now when the chemo starts to come out of her body." Even so, the family tries to take things "one day at a time."

"For me, it's an emotional rollercoaster sometimes. Mentally it's always on my mind," Mama June said, before adding of Anna's prognosis, "We know it's terminal."

"She's stage 4. She's not gonna go into remission," she said. "We've all accepted that, so I just tell people one day at a time 'cause you never know."

Lauryn is particularly hopeful that new treatments may become available amid her sister's cancer battle.

"Honestly, who's not to say a year from now they'll have a cure. The medical field is growing every single day. There's always something," she said. "Think about how quick they came out with a COVID vaccine and things like that. I truly believe eventually there will be a cure for some kind of cancer."

Alana is likewise hopeful, telling ET, "It is crazy to think that she will not be here probably in five years, but I'm hoping that she can pull through and fight 10, 20 years."

The season 6 finale of Mama June: From Not to Hot airs Friday, July 14 on WE tv.

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