Andruzzi Battling Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma
According to ESPN’s Len Pasquarelli, Joe Andruzzi has been diagnosed with with a treatable form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. From ESPN:
Andruzzi, 31, was diagnosed late last week after complaining of general irritability, swelling and a high fever. The popular lineman, Linta said, will immediately begin a 12-step round of chemotherapy treatments at the Dana Farber Institute in Boston. The facility is one to which Andruzzi and his family are longtime benefactors and for which he has raised a substantial amount of money during his career.
The good news is Dana Farber is one of the premier cancer wards in the world, so he is in the best of hands and we wish him a speedy recovery. Hockey great Mario Lemieux had Hodgkins lymphoma, which is different, but I’ll let one of you people who are smarter than me explain it.
As far as his chances of of joining the Jets to replace Pete Kendall, don’t count on it. It sounds as if he will have to undergo some chemotherapy soon. As much as we Jets fans would like an insurance policy, seeing an article like this makes you realize there are much more important things in life.
Like Bent said in the comments on another post, we all at TJB “hope he kicks it’s ass.”
2 Responses to Andruzzi Battling Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma
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Lorene says:
In September, I will celebrate my 9th year of being in remission from Non Hodgkins Lymphoma. May the Lord bless you with His healing touch.
I did a little digging on this, and there are differences in treatment of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma and Hodgkins Lymphoma, but it’s mostly the type of chemotherapy drugs that are used, not the duration of the treatmetn. Agressive forms of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma are also treated by Bone Marrow transplant, but based on this ESPN article, it doesn’t look like Andruzzi will need that.
For some perspective, Boston Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma last season very early on and he is just now coming back from it, so it is unlikely Andruzzi will be seeing any playing time this year. It does appear to be very treatable though (Lester, retired first baseman Andres Galarraga, and new Presidential hopeful and actor Fred Thompson all have had this cancer) and maybe he can make a comeback next year.