Speculation swirled for weeks around the health of Deion Sanders, Colorado Buffaloes head coach and famed Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee, who had been notably absent from team practice.
When he announced Monday that he had undergone surgery in June to remove his bladder after a cancer diagnosis, it once again became evident that cancer doesn’t discriminate around wealth and status.
But the serious nature of his condition highlights concerns about how Black people tend to be at a disproportionately higher health risk than other groups due to the deficiencies in care. Doctors hope Sanders’ diagnosis can influence others to take preventative steps.
Dr. Geoffrey Mount Varner, an emergency room physician in Maryland, noted that Black people are less likely to get bladder cancer but are more likely to die from it. “It does impact Black people more and aggressively,” he said.
In a video of Sanders, 57, filmed in May but shared by his son on Sunday, the coach spoke about how emotionally and mentally draining it was to have to write a will before his surgery.
“That’s not easy at all,” he said at the time.
A high-profile figure like Sanders having a cancerous tumor on his bladder is likely to prompt more people to seek screening. Five years ago, the shocking death of actor Chadwick Boseman from colon cancer at age 43 raised awareness among Black men of the importance of having a colonoscopy. Black people are at a disproportionately high risk for colon cancer diagnoses, according to the American Cancer Society, and the mortality rate has increased in recent years, particularly among Black men.
Just four days before Sanders’ news conference, Varner, also a Black man in his 50s, completed chemotherapy for prostate cancer.
“Cancer touches 100% of people,” Varner said.
What is bladder cancer surgery like?
During the news conference, Dr. Janet Kukreja, the director of urological oncology at University of Colorado Health, said Sanders chose to have bladder surgery over chemotherapy because it increased his chances to continue coaching.
“It’s a laparoscopic surgery,” Kukreja, who performed the surgery, said, “where we attach a robot to the patient, and then we do all the maneuvering of the robot, and then once the bladder comes out, we also take some lymph nodes to make sure it hasn’t spread — and it didn’t — and then we make a new bladder for people. “We use their own intestine so they don’t have to take immunosuppression.
Life after the surgery, she said, “is a new way of life, and it is a learning curve, for sure.”
Sanders, who plans to coach the Buffaloes in the upcoming season, even joked that there may need to be a “port-a-potty on the sideline.”
Dr. Philippe Spiess, a genitourinary oncologist at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida, said this procedure typically lasts between five and seven hours and “involves removing the bladder, prostate and surrounding lymph nodes in the pelvis,” since the cancer could spread beyond the bladder.”
Why Black Americans should take note
Sanders used the news conference Monday to urge those watching to “get checked out,” especially when there are even the mildest of symptoms that something is off.
It was sound advice, Varner said.
“One of the screen exams for bladder cancer is, for instance, just a regular urinalysis,” he said. “It will pick up blood in the urine, which is a symptom. If you don’t go to your primary care physician and have these basic screenings done, you miss it. And by the time you have obvious symptoms, you’re further along the line for prostate cancer or colon cancer or breast cancer for Black women.”
Varner said up to 70% of cancers are tied to food consumption, especially fast food and ultraprocessed products.
“In Black communities, there are one and a half times more fast-food restaurants,” he said. “The reason why that matters is that fast food restaurants serve hyperprocessed foods, which leads to or increases the risk of cancer. And so right off the bat, it puts Black folks at a disadvantage.”
“It would help all people, and the Black community specifically, if some of the basic screenings were free,” Varner said.
As an ER doctor, Varner said he often sees patients who have long had symptoms of a serious illness, but by the time they get to the hospital, “they want immediate care.” But earlier screening would make the issue of care a little less invasive and daunting.
Varner said prostate-specific screenings for cancer and analysis should be more broadly accessible. “There are programs that help with the cost of some tests,” he said. “But we have to take advantage of them and not wait until it’s too late.”
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