Dick Vitale reveals metastasis
ESPN broadcaster Dick Vitale disclosed that melanoma has spread to his lung and liver as he continues cancer treatment. The announcement appeared in a recent social post and was shared widely by sports outlets. (x.com)
Dick Vitale said on April 13 that a biopsy found melanoma in his lung and liver cavity, his fifth cancer diagnosis. (espn.com) The 86-year-old ESPN broadcaster said his oncologist, Dr. Brown, delivered the results after 10 days of scans, magnetic resonance imaging, bloodwork and a biopsy. He said he will start immunotherapy soon. (wbbjtv.com) Vitale said he has previously beaten melanoma, lymphoma, vocal-cord cancer and lymph-node cancer. He said, “I’m 4 for 4 and I’m fully confident I’m going to make it 5 for 5.” (espn.com) Melanoma is a skin cancer that can spread to other organs, and Vitale’s update came 95 days after he said on January 8, 2025, that he was cancer-free following surgery on cancerous lymph nodes in his neck. (espn.com) That January clearance led to his return to ESPN on January 25, 2025, for Duke against Wake Forest, his first game assignment since April 3, 2023. His new diagnosis interrupts what had been his first full stretch back around college basketball after nearly two years away. (espn.com) Vitale has been with ESPN since the 1979-80 season, called the network’s first major National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball game on December 5, 1979, and has worked more than 1,000 games. ESPN said he just completed his 46th season covering college basketball. (espn.com) His recent health fights have been extensive: multiple melanoma surgeries in 2021, lymphoma treatment later that year, radiation for vocal-cord cancer in 2023, and summer 2024 surgery after a neck lymph-node biopsy showed cancer. Vitale said those treatments included five vocal-cord surgeries, 65 radiation treatments and six months of chemotherapy. (espn.com) He said he still feels “fantastic,” and he tied the announcement to his long-running cancer fundraising work. The 21st Dick Vitale Gala is scheduled for May 1 in Sarasota, Florida, and the event has raised more than $105 million over two decades for pediatric cancer research, according to the Associated Press. (wbbjtv.com) For now, Vitale said he knows what he is facing and plans to keep fighting. That has been the constant through each diagnosis, and it is the line he returned to again on Monday. (wbbjtv.com)
