Jim Kelly avoids cancer surgery, doctors say it is 'treatable and potentially curable'

JimKelly
Doctors believe that Jim Kelly’s aggressive cancer is “very treatable and potentially curable.” They just won’t be able to help him with surgery as they initially planned.

Surgery turned out to be “not the best option for Jim,” according to Jill Kelly, the wife of the Pro Football Hall of Famer, wrote in a Facebook update. Doctors told the Kellys that the oral cancer – which was diagnosed last summer and recently returned “is in areas that surgery cannot successfully eradicate.”

The new plan, she wrote, is for the 54-year-old former NFL quarterback to be treated with chemotherapy and radiation. Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, where Kelly will be treated, added in a statement that surgery could “potentially” become an option again.

“Jim Kelly’s condition remains very treatable and potentially curable," the statement read. “Our immediate focus is on controlling his pain and beginning the process of eradicating the cancer.”

Kelly, who led the Bills to four straight Super Bowls in the early 1990s, will be treated by Dr. Peter D. Costantino, the executive director of Lenox Hill’s New York Head & Neck Institute. Kelly had previously been treated at the Erie County Medical Center in the Buffalo area, but according to the Lenox Hill statement “His cancer returned in a location that requires specialized expertise in the treatment of skull-based tumors.”

Kelly first learned he had a form of upper-jaw cancer last June and underwent surgery to remove part of his jawbone and teeth. He appeared to beat the disease until about two weeks ago when Jill Kelly wrote on her blog that “The cancer’s back, aggressive and starting to spread.”

Jim Kelly, who was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2002, has received an outpouring of support from former teammates and his many fans in Western New York, where they’re also reeling from the death of long-time Bills owner Ralph Wilson on Tuesday. In one of her updates on Facebook, Twitter and her blog, Jill wrote “Thank you for walking along side us, lifting us up in prayer, loving us, and hoping.”

She also posted a photo of Jim Kelly hugging his father.


Bookmark and Share
(nydailynews.com)
blog comments powered by Disqus