Retired NBA center Jason Collins is receiving treatment for Stage 4 glioblastoma, one of the deadliest forms of brain cancer, three months after his family announced he had been diagnosed with a brain tumor.
Collins, who played 13 seasons for six teams and became the first active, openly gay player in league history, told ESPN he is facing an average prognosis of 11 to 14 months.
His tumor is considered unresectable, and he is following the standard treatment plan.
“Currently I’m receiving treatment at a clinic in Singapore that offers targeted chemotherapy using EDVs,” Collins said. “It acts as a Trojan horse, seeking out proteins only found in glioblastomas to deliver its toxic payload past the blood-brain barrier and straight into my tumors.”
He added that he won’t “let this cancer kill me without giving it a hell of a fight.”
Collins, 47, said he will undergo radiation, chemotherapy and an immunotherapy regimen still in development.
“The goal is to keep fighting the progress of the tumors long enough for a personalized immunotherapy to be made for me,” he said, “and to keep me healthy enough to receive it once it’s ready.”
His family revealed the diagnosis in September, when Collins said he was mentally unable to speak for himself.
He described “weird symptoms” beginning in August, when he and husband Brunson Green missed a flight to the U.S. Open because he couldn’t stay focused enough to pack.
A CT scan at UCLA showed that “something was really wrong,” Collins said. His short-term memory and comprehension deteriorated rapidly.
“According to my family, in hours, my mental clarity disappeared, turning into an NBA player’s version of Dory from Finding Nemo.”
Collins said friends and family visited him in the hospital to say their goodbyes at one point, as he remained stuck “in a fog” doctors feared he might not come out of.
There has been some improvement.
“By the middle of October I started to go on short walks around my neighborhood,” he said. “My husband even gave me back my phone. Apparently I was sending very weird text messages and watching mindless TikToks for hours while I was out of it.”
Collins last played in 2014, finishing his career with the Nets.
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