Dwyane Wade reveals recent surgery to remove cancerous mass on kidney

Earlier this week, former NBA star and current NBC NBA analyst Dwyane Wade shared that he has finally started to feel better following surgery to have a cancerous mass on his liver removed.

During the most recent episode of his podcast, The Why with Dwyane Wade, which was largely centered around men’s wellness and mental health advocacy, the Hall of Famer shared how he went to the hospital for a routine physical and some minor stomach pain which was later revealed to be stemming from a tumor on his kidney.

“I went into the doctor’s looking for something else. But because I did the full body scan, they were able to see my entire insides. They were able to see something that was on my right kidney when I went in. What I had on my kidney was a cyst, a tumor. But it wasn’t something that they could test without going in and surgically removing it. So I went for a physical pretty much to check on myself. And now the doctor is like you need to have kidney surgery.”

Wade did have the surgery over 13 months ago, which resulted in 40 percent of his kidney being removed. The mass that was removed was ultimately determined to be cancerous. Luckily, Wade caught it quick enough that it didn’t spread, a fact that he is quite relieved by.

“To find out at 41 years old, pretty healthy guy, that I did have cancer,” he said. “Thank god I did do the surgery. So I have one kidney and another kidney that is at 60 percent…

“I think it was the first time that my family, my dad, my kids, saw me weak. That moment was probably the weakest point that I have ever felt in my life. The moments I was by myself, I was struggling. One thing you never want to do, as a man, is show you are weak. Don’t want to be perceived weak and don’t want to show your weak moments. But I had to. Fortunately for me, my family jumped in. I saw everybody show up.”

While the initial recovery process was difficult for Wade, he outlined that while he is routinely checked for other forms of cancer like prostate cancer, he is feeling as good as ever after recovering from the surgery.

Since departing from TNT in 2022 after a three-year tenure, Wade has remained in the public eye. Most notably, he served alongside Noah Eagle as the lead color analyst for NBC’s coverage of the 2024 Paris Olympics where he received rave reviews.

Now that NBA coverage will be returning to NBC thanks to the new NBA media rights deal announced this past summer, expect to see much more of Wade in some capacity moving forward. Especially considering his health scare is now a thing of the past.