Dwyane Wade is opening up about the changes in his body that he noticed before being diagnosed with kidney cancer.
The retired NBA pro revealed in an interview aired March 11, on TODAY that he made an appointment to see his doctor at age 40 to get a check-up for his own peace of mind after his dad had been diagnosed with prostate cancer.
During the appointment, Wade, who recalled feeling “pretty healthy” at the time, mentioned to his physician that he had stomach pain and changes to how he urinated.
“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 recalled.
“I had some cramps, some pain, a little bit at times in my stomach that I did not understand,” he added. “But I didn’t think nothing of it. And so once I finally went in, I was like, OK, I just want to know everything.”
Wade’s physician had him undergo an MRI scan to investigate the area in his body where he was experiencing pain. After the MRI, the physician called with a concerning update.
“She expressed to me that it was very early, but they thought they saw something on my kidneys,” Wade recalled. “I didn’t go in for my kidneys. I went in to check what was going on in my stomach and my prostate.”
Wade’s physician advised him to undergo additional scans and to meet with a specialist.
After a second MRI again showed a suspicious mass on Wade’s kidney, the specialist began talking about a potential surgery.
Wade struggled to comprehend how he, as a former pro athlete, could have developed kidney cancer. The word cancer alone, he remembers, had him “panicking.”
“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,'” said Wade.
“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,” he continued.
After his new doctor explained that the smartest approach would be to remove the suspicious lesion to prevent it from spreading, Wade agreed to the procedure.
“(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,” Wade added.
On the day of the surgery, in December 2023, Wade’s wife, actor Gabrielle Union, and his father accompanied him to the hospital.
The former Miami Heat player shared a vow he made to himself that day.
“I remember telling myself, if I do come out of this, you know how I’m going to approach life, how I’m going to approach every day … I’m going to live for the 24 hours.”
“Of course, I’m going to plan for the future because I need to, but also to focus on the present,” he continued. “And the present is the 24 that you’re able to have.”
After the surgery, Wade felt excruciating pain, he said. As a “prideful” man, he didn’t like that his wife and kids saw him so “weak,” but he appreciated their help.
When his physician later phoned Wade with the news that the lesion was Stage 1 cancer, Wade was even more grateful he’d opted to get the surgery.
“Thank God that we caught it early,” he said. This wasn’t something that was able to grow. It was about 3 centimetres on my kidney.”
Though Wade’s cancer ordeal was frightening, he believes it’s helped him to give him clarity about his life and his future.
“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,” he added.
Now strong and healthy again, Wade is sharing his story to encourage others — especially men — to be proactive about their health and consulting a doctor if they notice changes in their bodies.
“When people hear cancer, obviously immediately they think it’s over,” he said.
“But it’s really helped me,” he explained. “I think being able to speak about it in an environment with other men that I know, a lot of us are not going to check ourselves out if we don’t feel nothing. If nothing is happening, we’re like, ‘We’re good.’ And I want us to get over that. I want us to grow from that.”