During a press conference held on the campus of the University of Connecticut, head basketball coach Jim Calhoun announced that he recently had a cancerous mass removed from his neck on May 6th.
Calhoun had noticed he was feeling lethargic and sleeping more and had been originally been diagnosed as having an upper respiratory infection. He had also noticed that he had a small boil like mass on his neck.
As time went on, Calhoun wasn’t feeling any better and noticed the mass had gotten bigger. He eventually saw a specialist, Dr. Jeffery Spiro, at the UConn Health Center who did a needle aspiration biospy of the area.
A couple of days later, Spiro gave Calhoun the bad news that he had cancer, specifically a squamous cell carcinoma and that it would need to be removed.
Calhoun and Spiro both said the mass that was removed was just smaller than a golf ball.
Spiro did say that Calhoun is now “cancer free” but will undergo tomotherapy which is a new radiation therapy treatment as a precaution. Treatment will take place 5 days a week for 6 weeks.
Calhoun will be scaling back his appearances but will be participating in his Jim Calhoun Cancer Challenge Ride on June 6th. His first radiation therapy will take place on June 24th.
Calhoun said he will still be coaching the UConn Huskies this season and for years to come.
2 responses so far ↓
1
Steve
// May 31, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Ray Allen’s response to Calhoun’s news.
Best part of the story is this:
2
Ian
// May 31, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Poor Ray. He’s in the United States and still isn’t recognized.
Calhoun must be a very happy man with Ray Ray in the finals despite everything that’s going on in his life.