Dick Vitale Announces Vocal Cord Cancer Diagnosis, Andrea Evans Dies from Breast Cancer and More

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From Stand Up to Cancer honoring survivors at a Minor League baseball game, to Maria Menounos showing her cancer scars on Instagram, here’s what’s happening in the oncology space this week.

ESPN’s Dick Vitale announced that he was diagnosed with vocal cord cancer.

Dick Vitale accepting the 2022 Jimmy V Award for Perseverance at the ESPYS

ESPN's Dick Vitale announced that he has been diagnosed with vocal cord cancer.

ESPN commentator, Dick Vitale, revealed his diagnosis of vocal cord cancer this past Wednesday.

“I’m sorry to share that I received tough news today from Dr. (Steven) Zeitels about my throat. The tests on the tissues they removed showed that I have vocal cord cancer and will need six weeks of radiation to treat it. Dr. Z tells me that it has an extremely high cure rate, and that radiation, not surgery is the best path,” Vitale wrote on Twitter.

Last year, Vitale had announced that he was cancer free after being diagnosed with melanoma in 2021, following his diagnosis with lymphoma just a few months later.

Vitale plans “on winning this battle like I did vs melanoma (and) lymphoma,” according to a recent press release.

“I’m grateful to my immediate family as well as my ESPN family for their incredible support, and so appreciative of the outstanding team of medical experts whose dedication has such a positive impact on so many lives,” Vitale added in his tweet.

“This time last year, I was on the ESPYS stage, asking everyone to help in the cancer fight. This terrible disease strikes so many of our loved ones, and it’s now knocked on my door three different times. More research will continue to help in this fight.”

Maria Menounos showed off new cancer scars in recent photo.

TV correspondent, Maria Menounos, posted an Instagram photo this past Sunday revealing her cancer scars from her latest surgery.

Menounos had announced in May that she had surgery completed a few months prior, in efforts to remove a stage 2 pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor, along with part of her pancreas, her spleen, a fibroid and 17 lymph nodes, according to a recent press release by TODAY.

"I look back on surgery earlier this year and am grateful for the strength god blessed me with to get through and of course all of the beautiful humans that he sent to help me too,” Menounos wrote under her bikini photo on Instagram.

When the doctors had initially scanned Menounos, they had explained everything to be fine. The pain had continued for Menounos, causing her to receive two MRIs, which had showed the mass.

Menounos continues to be in remission for a five-year period with annual scans.

“When I came out, he goes, ‘Oh, this is definitely something. I remember waking up the next morning, and I hadn’t really cried, but I just started guttural crying because I’m like, ‘How could God finally bless me with a baby after 10 years? And now I’m not going to get to meet her,” Menounos explained to TODAY.

Menounos continues to be in remission and is currently in a five-year period with annual scans.

Actress Andrea Evans died from breast cancer.

Soap opera actress Andrea Evans died from breast cancer this past Sunday in her home, located in Pasadena, California.

Evans started her career in 1978, starring as Fay Morrison Wheeler in “The Awakening,” but is best known for her role in “One Life to Live,” in 1988, for which she was nominated for “outstanding ingenue in a drama series,” according to USA TODAY.

Later in her career, she played in “The Young and the Restless,” and was then nominated again for her role in “DeVanity” in 2016 for “outstanding performer in a new approaches drama series,” according to USA TODAY.

"I've been working with Andrea for the past seven years. She was such a tremendous talent and an absolute joy to work with,” Evan’s current manager, Nick Leicht told PEOPLE.

Evans remained close with her fellow coworkers, and loved her husband and daughter, Steven and Kylie Rodriquez, former manager, Don Carroll told PEOPLE.

"People often think she must be very like the characters she played on television. In reality, her greatest days were spent with no makeup, her hair in pigtails, and a ballcap on her head at Disneyland with her daughter Kylie,” Carroll explained.

“She was a great wife and mother. She was my ROCK. Cancer killed Andrea, but it did not kill her spirit. That spirit is alive and well and lives on in each one of us, whom she touched,” Steven Rodriquez stated during the wake of her death, according to Yahoo News.

Stand Up To Cancer moment paused a Major League baseball game.

Crowds watching Tuesday night’s MLB All-Star Game in Seattle honored those who have been affected by cancer.

During the fifth inning, members of the crowd held up a placard with the headline reading, “I stand up for...” following a name of someone who has cancer, or whose lives were lost to cancer. Fans also had the option to write, “patients,” “those we’ve lost,” “those in the fight” and “survivors,” according to MLB.

Stand Up To Cancer, a cancer research charity founded in 2009, directs its funding to developing new cancer research for patients, while working with reliable and well renowned scientists.

“Major League Baseball, its fans, players and coaches are united in our determination to defeat this disease, for our friends, our families and our community. Please stand together, with Major League Baseball, Mastercard, FOX and the entire baseball family in support of all those this disease has touched,” FOX announcer Joe Davis said to the crowd, according to MLB.

This gave players and professionals a chance to recognize their friends and family, as Rob Thompson, Cal Ripken Jr, Davis, Ozzie Albie and Geraldo Perdomo honored those close to them who have or have passed away due to cancer.

MLB is one of the charity’s biggest supporters, donating tens of millions of dollars to the charity since it was founded. Alongside donating money, MLB also created fundraisers for the charity within their owned stadiums.

For more news on cancer updates, research and education, don’t forget to subscribe to CURE®’s newsletters here.

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