Dick Vitale finishes radiation for vocal cord cancer, awaits further testing

SARASOTA, Fla. — When he calls college basketball games for ESPN, Dick Vitale radiates enthusiasm.

The 84-year-old Lakewood Ranch resident hopes 35 radiation treatments for vocal cord cancer allow him to return to the microphone.

Vitale underwent his 35th and final daily radiation treatment on Friday at the Sarasota Memorial Radiation Oncology Center. His wife, Lorraine, said the treatments took their toll. Vitale has been ordered by doctors to rest his voice for six weeks.

“Naturally, everything in the throat, the swallowing, eating, and even the outer skin, it’s very burnt from all the radiation,” she said. “It was rough, but we all knew that. He got through it like a trooper.”

One thing Vitale continued doing during the treatments, each lasting only five minutes, was eating, and eating well.

 “(The food) came to him and he said, ‘I’m eating,’’’ Lorraine said. “So I bought all these smoothies, Ensures, all these drinks, and he was actually eating a full meal. I said, ‘You’re going to gain weight.’ Fish and pasta. He enjoyed the pain.”

The next step for Vitale, once the inflammation in his throat lessens, is undergoing a scope to determine if the radiation was successful. That procedure should happen in the next 2-3 weeks.

“Everything has to calm down,” Lorraine said.

Vitale’s radiation oncologist, Dr. Matthew Biagioli, echoed Lorraine’s feelings that Vitale handled the treatments well.

“I think when I look at Dick, he’s a highly motivated individual and he’s extremely positive and he’s gone through treatment better than expected,” he said. “Head and neck cancer is one of the more difficult cancers we treat, but he has such a positive attitude and is so motivated to succeed. This is an early-stage cancer. He’s had a good response and we expect him to do extremely well.”

Biagioli said the goal is to get Vitale back to where he was before the cancer diagnosis. For Vitale, that means a return to courtside for ESPN.

“I’m very encouraged that he’s definitely going to get his voice back,” Biagioli said. “Will it get back to the quality we’re familiar with? That’s the part that’s not clear. But having gotten to know the man, if anyone is going to be back calling games, I think it’s going to be him. So I give him good chances that he’ll be back calling games.”