Head Colorado Buffaloes football Coach Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders revealed his bladder cancer diagnosis for the first time on Monday morning. He appeared with his medical team, including representatives from CU Anschutz and UCHealth, to discuss his outlook and that he is considered “cancer-free.”
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Sanders’ doctor confirmed that his bladder was removed after the cancer diagnosis and they proceeded with the creation of a new bladder. She also said that Sanders is currently cancer-free.
“We removed the tumor. It was very high-grade and invading through the bladder wall. Not into the muscle layer, something we call very high-risk, non-muscle invasive bladder cancer,” said Dr. Janet Kukreja with CU Cancer Center at the UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital.
Sanders appeared in good spirits at the 40-minute long news conference, wearing a cowboy hat and overalls along with his signature sunglasses.
“It has been a tremendous journey,” said Sanders as he became emotional. “God is good… God is good… You have no idea how good God has been for me to be here.”
“I never once in this journey said, ‘God, why me?'”
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Sanders said that no one knew about his cancer diagnosis, not even the team. He also said he will remain in his position as head coach for the football team.
“So, I don’t mind going through the afflications that I go through because I know the result and we’re helping some folks today. There are some folks right now calling the doctors to schedule checkups, and there are some wives out there saying, ‘Baby, I told you,’ ” said Sanders. “Because if it can happen to Prime, it can happen to you.”
Kukreja said Sanders’ outlook was “very good” and that they would keep him on surveillance with routine scans.
She said that new bladders are created for patients using their own intestines.
“At the University of Colorado UCHealth, we usually do the procedure robotically, so it’s a laparoscopic surgery where we attach a robot to the patient and then we do all the maneuvering of the robot. And once the bladder comes out, we also take some lymph nodes to make sure that it hasn’t spread, and it didn’t, and then we make a new bladder for people,” said Kukreja.
Laparoscopic surgery is described as a surgical technique that uses a thin tube with a camera, to view and operate on internal organs through small incisions in the abdomen.
There has been speculation about his health after he hadn’t been seen in public for some time after the end of spring practice in April. Sanders took to social media last month to say that he was OK.
The sports show “Coach Prime’s Playbook with Romi Bean” featuring Deion Sanders, returns to CBS Colorado in August.
