DALLAS (KNWA) Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones says he has “no tumors” after dealing with stage 4 cancer and using an experimental trial drug.
Jones, 82, said in an interview with the Dallas Morning News on Tuesday that he was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma in 2010 and started treatment shortly after.
Roughly 105,000 new melanomas are expected to be diagnosed in the U.S. this year, according to the American Cancer Society, while about 8,400 are expected to die of the skin cancer.
While the exact cause of every melanoma is unknown, the Mayo Clinic says most are brought on by exposure to ultraviolet light. Areas that are often exposed to the sun, like the skin on your arms and legs, typically serve as starting points for melanoma.
Over the following decade, Jones underwent two lung surgeries and two lymph node surgeries, he told the newspaper.
Treating melanoma will vary based on the severity of the case and whether it has spread. Options typically include surgery and therapies like radiation, immunotherapy, and chemotherapy, the Mayo Clinic explains.
Early treatment can cure most skin cancers, the Cleveland Clinic notes, but advanced cases can be fatal. A 2021 National Library of Medicine article found that the five-year survival rate for stage 4 melanoma was 29.8 percent.
“I was saved by a fabulous treatment and great doctors and a real miracle [drug] called PD-1 [therapy],” Jones said. “I went into trials for that PD-1 and it has been one of the great medicines.”
The American Cancer Society says that PD-1 therapy is a “checkpoint protein” that helps prevent immune cells called “T cells” from attacking normal cells. Some cancer cells, however, have enough PD-L1, a protein found on some normal and cancer cells.
Inhibitors like PD-1 are meant to help a patient’s “immune system to better find and attack the cancer cells, wherever they are in the body.” They can be used to respond to several types of cancer, according to the American Cancer Society.
“I now have no tumors,” Jones said Tuesday.
ESPN reported that Jones talks about undergoing cancer treatments at MD Anderson in Houston in the upcoming Netflix documentary series “America’s Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys”, but he does not reveal the details of the treatment.
The docuseries discusses Jones’ purchase of the Cowboys, Tom Landry’s firing, Jimmy Johnson’s hiring, and the rise of the 1990s Cowboys teams. Stories about Jones’ life are interspersed throughout the series. The docuseries premieres on Aug. 19.
