From Teddi Mellencamp revealing that she had more melanoma spots removed to Isabella Strahan announcing being cancer-free, here’s what’s happening in the oncology space this week.
Teddi Mellencamp revealed new spots of melanoma were found.
“Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” alum, Teddi Mellencamp, 43, shared that two new spots of melanoma on her neck and back and were found and removed.
“I have to listen to my body, and something isn’t feeling right,” she recently said on Instagram. “I have felt a little something in my neck and in my back, so anxiety is pretty high, because I didn’t feel these things before.”
She emphasized to her Instagram followers that attending follow-up appointments are “just as important as getting that first check.”
Mellencamp received a diagnosis of stage 2 melanoma in 2022, according to PEOPLE, and has removed 15 cancerous growths since then. In September 2023, Mellencamp opened up on Instagram about her experience with melanoma.
Michael Strahan’s daughter announces being cancer-free.
Michael Strahan and his daughters. From left to right, Tanita, Sophia, Michael and Isabella. Credit: JC Olivera / Getty Images
Isabella Strahan, 19, daughter of Michael Strahan from “Good Morning America,” shared on YouTube that she is now cancer-free.
She recently went to the hospital to have her chemotherapy port surgically removed from her neck and stomach, which was painful, she said in the YouTube video. At a recent doctor’s appointment, she also received an MRI scan, which determined she is cancer-free.
“It was a great, great scan,” she said. “Everything was clear. Cancer-free and everything is great. I don’t have another doctor’s appointment until October.”
In January, she opened up about her diagnosis of medulloblastoma, a type of brain cancer. She then received chemotherapy treatment the same month, as her father reported on “Good Morning America.”
A meteorologist with cancer responded publicly to a negative email about her wearing a wig.
Laura Mock, a 33-year-old meteorologist who works at Fox 23 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer in May 2024. After starting chemotherapy, she began to lose her hair, so she wore a wig on air.
A viewer emailed the newsroom and wrote, “Can she stop playing with her hair and do weather? Looks like she has added fake hair.”
Mock decided to respond to the email publicly via Facebook. “News flash! It is fake,” Mock wrote. “I started losing my hair (thanks chemotherapy!) at the end of June and have been wearing a wig for a little more than a week,” she wrote. The meteorologist also included a side-by-side photo of her wearing the wig and holding it up.
“I’m battling cancer, and everybody (at work) feels bad for me getting that comment,” Mock told TODAY.com. “But there are women that are getting these comments every day that maybe aren’t battling cancer, but they’re battling other things in their lives, and we don’t deserve to have this done.”
Troy Trojans Football Player will not play because of cancer treatment.
Chris Lewis, a wide receiver for Troy University’s Trojans football team, will not play this coming season because of cancer treatment.
He revealed to ESPN that after receiving a diagnosis of osteosarcoma requiring chemotherapy and surgery, he will attend school and work as a student assistant coach.
In the spring, he received chemotherapy for 10 weeks before undergoing surgery to remove a tumor in his femur.
“I was just lost,” Lewis said to ESPN. “How did that happen? I was lost for words. It was a lot of questions.”
A 7-year-old cancer survivor hiked the mountain she passed on the way to cancer treatments.
Sadie Mortensen was diagnosed with leukemia when she was 5 years old, and every time she was driven to treatments at the Primary Children’s Hospital, she passed the Y: a large, white-colored letter Y built into the hillside above Provo, Utah. The Y has roots back to Brigham Young University.
Recently, Mortensen climbed the Y, which, according to the Salt Lake Tribune, gains 1,074 vertical feet over 1.1 miles.
“It started out harder,” she said. “But when I made it closer to the top, I was like, ‘It’s just a couple more breaks and then I can do this.’”
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