Beloved basketball broadcaster Dick Vitale is cancer-free once again, he announced in a video shared to X on Wednesday.
The news is the latest in a winding road of ups and downs for the 85-year-old, who has undergone multiple cancer treatments since his initial diagnosis of melanoma in 2021.
“I am ecstatic! I’m on cloud nine! (Dr. Rick Brow) said the bloodwork was perfect, and he also said four words you love to hear: ‘You’re cancer-free, baby!’” Vitale exclaimed. “Wow, I can’t believe it. I really am so excited. It brought me to tears when he delivered it, because as cancer patients, you know that call is nerve-racking time. It’s life-changing.”
My results have arrived from my SCAN & also my BLOODWORK. Dr Rick Brown the Head of Oncology @SMHCS shared with me his evaluation. @jksports @ESPNPR @TheMontagGroup @KevinNegandhi @TheVCEO @TheVFoundation @WSB_Speakers @raycoletv pic.twitter.com/ObEhZ0hdTc
— Dick Vitale (@DickieV) May 13, 2025
Vitale added he’s going to have a “great Italian dinner” to celebrate.
“I feel like I won the national championship!” He said, pumping his fist in the air.
Vitale underwent multiple surgeries to remove melanoma in 2021 and was then deemed cancer-free. But in October of that year, he announced he was diagnosed with lymphoma. He then announced that December that he had been diagnosed with Dysplasia — a vocal cord condition that can progress to cancer.
Vitale underwent surgery on his vocal cords in February 2022 after taking a hiatus from his broadcasting duties at the start of the year due to the Dysplasia diagnosis. In the summer of 2023, he had two surgeries following a vocal cord cancer diagnosis. By that December, Vitale was again declared cancer-free, but said the treatments took a toll on his voice and he required more healing, causing him to miss the entire 2023-24 basketball season. Another surgery followed in June 2024 after a biopsy of the lymph node in his neck came back cancerous.
In January, Vitale said a scope of his vocal cords revealed he was cancer-free. He planned to return to the broadcast booth to provide color commentary for a Duke-Wake Forest game on Jan. 25, but an accident at his home unrelated to cancer resulted in the decision to postpone his return. In February, he received a standing ovation from fans, players and coaches before calling a Duke-Clemson game at Littlejohn Coliseum.
(Photo: Grant Halverson / Getty Images)
