Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones received his cancer diagnosis in 2010, but recently revealed he was treated for advanced melanoma.
Jones disclosed the information in a documentary series, “America’s Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys,” the Associated Press reported. The documentary will debut on Netflix next week.
Jones credited an experimental trial drug for treating him, he told The Dallas Morning News.
Jones, 82, had two surgeries on his lung and two on his lymph nodes throughout the next 10 years. That was after skin cancer cells metastasized to other parts of his body.
“Well, you don’t like to think about your mortality, but I was so fortunate to have some great people that sent me in the right direction,” Jones said Wednesday. “I got to be part of a trial that was propitious. It really worked. It’s called PD-1 (therapy), and it really, really, really worked.”
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Brian Schottenheimer, the new Cowboys coach, said Jones’ cancer battle was an “amazing story.”
“I’m glad that Jerry shared it, just because I think it gives people hope,” Schottenheimer said. “It gives people the strength to say … ‘Hey, you can beat this.’”
Schottenheimer, 51, has battled cancer himself. He underwent surgery for thyroid cancer in 2003.
Dan Snyder, who was the Washington Commanders owner at that time, arranged Schottenheimer’s treatment. He had fired his father, Marty Schottenheimer, as coach two years earlier.
Brian Schottenheimer was Washington’s quarterbacks coach during the 2001 season. That was the same year Snyder was treated for thyroid cancer.
“It doesn’t discriminate against anybody,” Schottenheimer said. “And mine was certainly less serious, but I was 28 when I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Nothing like Stage 4, nothing like what Jerry and other people have to go through. But you hear that word ‘cancer,’ and it scares the hell out of you.”
