NBA legend Dwyane Wade has revealed how subtle stomach pains and a routine check up led him to a shocking kidney cancer diagnosis.
The former Miami Heat player, aged 43, revealed earlier this year that he underwent surgery in December 2023 to remove 40 percent of one of his kidneys due to a Stage 1 cancerous tumor.
Both Wade’s father and grandfather had battled prostate cancer – a fact that had always kept him worried about his health.
Despite feeling generally healthy, he became concerned when he experienced changes in his urination and stomach pain three years ago, prompting him to seek medical attention.
He said: ‘I talked about just having a slow stream, like sometimes when I would go to the bathroom, my urine would come out little slow.
He described his symptoms as cramps, occasional pain in his stomach, which initially seemed insignificant to him. However, upon visiting the doctor, he expressed his desire to comprehensively understand his health condition.
To find the source of his pain, Wade’s physician asked him to undergo an MRI of his kidney, stomach and prostate.
The scan showed a large mass on his kidney that doctors decided to immediately remove surgically – revealing the star athlete had kidney cancer.
NBA legend Dwyane Wade has revealed how a routine check up for stomach pain led him to discover his kidney cancer diagnosis
Wade told TODAY: ‘[The doctor] expressed to me that it was very early, but they thought they saw something on my kidneys. I didn’t go in for my kidneys. I went in to check what was going on my stomach and my prostate’.
The doctor suggested he undergo further scans speak to a specialist.
His second MRI scan also showed a 1.1 inch sized mass on one of his kidneys – prompting doctors to consider surgery to remove the lesion to prevent it from spreading.
After the surgery, his physician told him his cancer was Stage 1.
The five year survival rate for Stage 1 kidney cancer is 93 percent.
The father-of-four recalled how panicked he felt after hearing he may have cancer and recalled battling with the decision to have a life-altering procedure.
He said: ‘Immediately they try to say, ‘Well, we don’t know if it’s cancerous, but it’s something on there, and you’re a young man, and we just want to make sure that, you obviously are able to live this healthy lifestyle’.
‘So now I’m processing the possibility of surgery on my kidneys. I’ve had it on my knees, I’ve had it on my shoulder, but it’s something that feels a little realer when it’s inside your body.
‘[My doctor said] in the next five or 10 years, if this is cancer, [it can] not only spread through your kidneys, but it [can] also spread through your lungs and eventually to your brain. That’s when I knew that was, like, really serious.’
Kidney cancer, also known as renal cancer, is most commonly diagnosed in people 55 and 74 and men are more prone than women to develop the condition.
The American Cancer Society estimates about 81,610 were diagnosed with kidney cancer last year and 14,390 people died.
The 43-year-old former Miami Heat player shared that he had 40 percent of his kidney removed in December 2023 after finding a Stage 1 cancerous tumor
To understand the source of his pain, Wade’s physician asked him to undergo an MRI scan over his kidney, stomach and prostate
Risk factors for the cancer include smoking, obesity, high blood pressure, chronic kidney disease or family history.
Symptoms may include blood in the urine, a lump in the abdomen or back pain, fever, weight loss and fatigue.
The most common form of kidney cancer treatments are surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
Invasive kidney surgery can involve removing part or all of a kidney and may also involve removing lymph nodes as well as other infected tissues.
In Wade’s case, doctors performed a partial nephrectomy, removing about 40 percent of his kidney to ensure all the cancer was gone.
A partial nephrectomy involves the removal of part of the kidney where the tumor is, while sparing the remainder from damage or removal.
Experts conduct this procedure on those whose tumor is either less than 2.7 inches or if the patient only has one kidney.
The procedure can be performed using open surgery or minimally invasive techniques, such as laparoscopy or robotics.
Wade pictured here with wife Gabrielle Union at the the Out100 Event 2024 at NeueHouse Hollywood on December 11, 2024
Despite being in excruciating pain, Wade felt relieved and grateful for undergoing the procedure before the cancer could spread
While a common procedure, some of the risks associated with partial nephrectomy include blood clots, infection, damage to the remaining kidney tissue and in some cases, kidney failure.
It typically takes several weeks to a few months for the kidney to fully heal and during this time, patients tend to experience some pain, swelling, and bruising in the area around the incision.
Despite being in excruciating pain, Wade felt relieved and grateful for undergoing the procedure before the cancer could spread.
‘Thank God that we caught it early. This wasn’t something that was able to grow. It was about three centimeters on my kidney,’ he said.
Since them, he believes the ordeal has helped him to give him clarity about his life and his future.
He said: ‘I needed to sit down and think about my life, think about where I was and where I wanted to go, what was important, what wasn’t important, and it set me down.
‘I spent a lot of time writing in my journal, spent a lot of time thinking about what I want the next 40 years or so to look like and feel like, and so it’s a really important time in my life at the same time.’
