On January 2, tennis great Martina Navratilova revealed that she has been diagnosed with two unrelated cancers: stage 1 throat cancer and early-stage breast cancer.
The 66-year-old athlete said in a statement that an enlarged lymph node in her neck had been biopsied, leading to a diagnosis of human papillomavirus (HPV)-related throat cancer — part of a larger group of cancers known as head and neck cancers. The breast cancer was discovered during testing on her throat.
Navratilova had a lumpectomy in 2010 after being diagnosed with a noninvasive form of breast cancer.
“This double whammy is serious but still fixable, and I’m hoping for a favorable outcome," Navratilova said in her statement. “It’s going to stink for a while, but I’ll fight with all I have got.”
We spoke with University of Colorado Cancer Center member Jessica McDermott, MD, an assistant professor of medical oncology at the CU School of Medicine, about Navratilova’s diagnosis and what people need to know about HPV-related cancers.