Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders Shares Cancer Diagnosis
Michelle Milliken
Retired two sport star and current University of Colorado Buffaloes football coach Deion Sanders shared this week that he’d been diagnosed with cancer.
At a press conference with Colorado team trainer Lauren Askevold and CU Cancer Center director of urologic oncology Dr. Janet Kukreja, 57-year-old Sanders announced that he was treated earlier this year for an aggressive form of bladder cancer. This involved a surgery to remove his bladder and reconstruct part of his intestine to function as a new one. There was no need for chemo or radiation, and no traces of cancer have been found. As a result, his doctor has declared him cured, so he’s ready for his third season at the helm of the Buffaloes football team.
Dr. Kukreja says, “We’re lucky to have found it at this stage where I could say the word cure, because I don’t use that word lightly as a cancer doctor.”
The tumor was discovered during a regularly scheduled CT scan that Sanders gets due to his history of blood clots, which have resulted in the amputation of two of his toes. Sanders said the surgery “wasn’t a cakewalk” and that he lost weight in the aftermath.
He also hopes to bring humor into his story to help anyone else going through the same thing who may feel embarrassed, saying, "I can't pee like I used to... I depend on Depends. ... I'm making a joke out of it, but it is real. It is real. It is real. If you see a port-a-potty on the sideline, it is real, I'm just telling you. You're going to see one at practice, on the sideline.”
He stressed the importance of getting your regular health screenings, too, saying, "Get checked out, get checked out. It could have been a whole other kind of gathering if I didn't. ... Everyone knows someone who is affected or infected by the 'C' word.''
With his now clean bill of health, Sanders is getting ready for another football season. Over his first two seasons as head coach, the Buffaloes have gone 13-12. The NFL great was no slouch himself on the field, either, being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame after accumulating 296 tackles, 53 interceptions, and nine touchdowns over 14 seasons as a cornerback and punt returner. He also spent parts of nine seasons in Major League Baseball, scoring 308 career runs and batting in an additional 168 runs.
According to the American Cancer Society, there will be about 65,000 new cases of bladder cancer in American men this year, along with just under 20,000 in American women. There will also be an estimated 12,640 deaths in men and 4,780 in women. Bladder cancer is the 10th leading cause of cancer death in the U.S., but death rates have been declining by about 1% each year since 2013, due to better treatments and more awareness prompting earlier diagnosis.
