University of Connecticut Men’s basketball coach Jim Calhoun has been diagnosed for cancer for the second time. He is not prepared to be held down; instead the man is figuring out ways to defeat his skin cancer.
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He admitted that there were some moments of fear but he never even thought of retiring after hearing of his condition. “All I thought was, ‘How do we defeat this?’” Calhoun said on Friday.
His physician Dr. Jeffrey Spiro revealed that Calhoun, 66, was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma, the second most common type of skin cancer.
A surgery was performed on May 6 to remove a lump of cancerous growth on his neck along with a small portion of the adjacent parotid salivary gland and 37 additional lymph nodes from the lower neck. He will undergo precautionary radiation therapy for six weeks starting in late June.
Squamous cell carcinoma grapples more than an estimated 250,000 cases in the United States each year. As the name suggests, it forms in the squamous cells which are resent in the upper layers of skin.
Back in 2003, Calhoun was diagnosed with prostrate cancer and last year he underwent a surgery to get a lump in his cheek removed.
Dr. Spiro told the reporters that Calhoun is free of cancer now but, he will have to carry on with the treatment, requiring 25 to 30 minutes five days a week, to make the squamous cell cancer leave for good.
Also, Dr. Spiro added that Calhoun’s treatment will not influence his ability to coach the basketball team and he is expected to return behind his club’s bench for his 22nd season this fall.
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