ESPN college basketball broadcaster Dick Vitale announced Wednesday that his cancer has returned, this time on his vocal cords.
Vitale, 84, said in a social media post that he plans to “fight like hell” to return for a 45th season following treatment. Vitale said the latest news came in an appointment with Dr. Steven Zeitels.
“I’m sorry to share that I received tough news today,” Vitale began. “The tests on the tissues they removed showed that I have vocal cord cancer and will need 6 weeks of radiation to treat it. Dr. Z tells me that it has an extremely high cure rate, and that radiation, not more surgery, is the best path.”
This is an update on my meeting today with Dr ZEITELS. Though I was disappointed with the pathology report, I plan on winning this battle like I did vs Melanoma & Lymphoma ! pic.twitter.com/pu61XJSm43
— Dick Vitale (@DickieV) July 12, 2023
Vitale added that Zeitels thinks that his return to calling games in the fall “is entirely possible.”
Vitale has already fought off lymphoma and melanoma.
In January 2022, Vitale was diagnosed by Zeitels with dysplasia on the vocal cords and underwent surgery.
He was declared cancer-free in April 2022 after undergoing chemotherapy to treat lymphoma on the heels of a diagnosis he first shared in October 2021.
Vitale called ESPN’s first college basketball broadcast in the company’s first year of existence in 1979.
–Field Level Media