Sportscaster Erin Andrews is opening up for the first time about her secret battle with cancer. In an article published today on Sports Illustrated's The MMQB, the FOX NFL sideline reporter and Dancing With The Stars host reveals that she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in September 2016. She's since had two surgeries to treat it, and she reports her doctors are confident they removed all the cancerous cells.
Andrews told the sports blog that it all started when she had a few routine tests performed by her doctor in June 2016. Four months later, her doctor called with conclusive test results: She had cervical cancer. Her doctor said she needed surgery to treat it soon. It's unclear what caused Andrews' cervical cancer, but most cases are caused by human papillomavirus (HPV), a virus that's passed from one person to another during sex, according to the CDC. HPV is the most common STD in the U.S., and the CDC reports that most sexually active men and women will have at least one type of HPV at some point in their lives. Most strains of HPV can clear up on their own, and people won't even know they have it. But certain high-risk strains—like HPV 16 and HPV 18—can cause abnormal cell growth in the cervix, which can develop into cancer. Each year, about 12,000 women will be diagnosed with cervical cancer and 4,000 women will die from cervical cancer.
After her diagnosis, Andrews didn't tell any of her co-workers. She even covered an NFL game that Sunday following the news. On October 11, she had surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles—she doesn't say the type of procedure—and she made one request of her oncologist: She needed a quick recovery. “I’m not watching any football games at home," Andrews says she told her doctor. "This is [Fox’s] Super Bowl year, and I’m not missing the Super Bowl."
Andrews' fiancé Jarret Stoll, a former NHL player, told Andrews not to worry about jumping right back into work. But Andrews was determined. She told Stoll, "You wouldn’t miss a game. You’d play through any injury, do whatever it takes to get back out there. That’s going to be me.” And Andrews stuck to her commitment. Just two days after her surgery, she took a red-eye flight to Green Bay, Wisconsin. Five days later, she was on the field, interviewing star football players. "Should I have been standing for a full game five days after surgery? Let’s just say the doctor didn’t recommend that,” Andrews told the sports blog. But sports were her escape, she says, and she needed to be with her FOX crew.
Andrews had a second surgery to remove her cancer on November 1, and doctors called her two weeks later with good news: Her margins were clear, which means that there were no cancerous cells remaining at the excision site and she wouldn't need radiation or chemotherapy.
Even though she kept her fight with cancer private, Andrews says she drew strength from the support people gave her during her public 2016 legal battle. Andrews went to court in February 2016 in a case connected to a 2008 stalker, who secretly filmed Andrews while she was changing in her hotel room. Andrews was suing the hotel where it happened. She won the case, earning $55 million in damages sustained. "After the trial everyone kept telling me, ‘You’re so strong, for going through all of this, for holding down a job in football, for being the only woman on the crew,’ ” Andrews told The MMQB. “Finally I got to the point where I believed it too. ‘Hey, I have cancer, but dammit, I am strong, and I can do this.’ ”
h/t The MMQB
Related:
- Nearly Half Of American Men Have HPV—But You Don't Need To Panic
- Cervical Cancer Is Killing More Women Than Previously Thought
- Defunding Planned Parenthood Could Increase Cervical Cancer Rates
Watch: How Women With Breast Cancer Stay Positive
