Mario Lemieux's career has been part triumph and part tragedy, replete with scoring titles and Stanley Cup championships but also with repeated medical setbacks.
Still, neither the Pittsburgh Penguins nor the NHL were prepared for this stunning news: Lemieux, hockey's predominate and highest-paid star, has cancer.Lemieux, the NHL's leading scorer, already may have started four to five weeks of radiation treatment for Hodgkin's disease, a usually treatable form of cancer that attacks the lymph nodes.
Lemieux, 27, was diagnosed in the early stages of the disease after a large lymph node was removed from his neck, according to a statement approved Tuesday by team physician Dr. Charles Burke.
The disease is confined to the abnormal lymph node, and subsequent tests have shown no evidence of any other problems, the doctor said. The Penguins said Lemieux could resume playing in four to six weeks, though doctors said those projections seem overly optimistic.
"I don't know what more that guy is going to have to go through," Penguins winger Troy Loney said. "I just feel for him. I couldn't care less when he comes back, just that he gets healthy."
Hodgkin's disease, named for Thomas Hodgkin, the English physician who discovered it, is a disease characterized by the progressive enlargement of the lymph nodes and inflammation of organs such as the spleen and liver.
Lemieux has spoken publicly of several family members who died of cancer, but there were never any hints Lemieux himself would develop the disease.
For the Penguins, it was the second such shocker in less than 18 months. Coach Bob Johnson died of brain cancer in November 1991, just six months after coaching the Penguins to the first of their two Stanley Cup championships.
"It's a pretty scary situation. We just can't afford to lose people of his caliber in our game," said Wayne Gretzky, hockey's unquestioned star until Lemieux came into the league in 1985.
"More importantly, he has to worry about his health now. He has a difficult time ahead of him."
Lemieux's teammates made their annual visit to Children's Hospital on Tuesday; Lemieux was not present. He reportedly underwent treatment in Allegheny General Hospital, but the Penguins would not confirm that.
Lemieux's agent, Tom Reich, issued a statement from his California office saying, "He has a condition . . . that is in a mild stage. The prognosis is extremely good."
Hodgkin's disease is marked by a chronic enlargement of the lymph nodes, the small, compact structures that line the blood vessels and manufacture infection-fighting antibodies. Among the side effects of the disease are anemia and continuous fever.
A typical treatment for Hodgkin's consists of five to 10 minutes of radiation five times a week for four to five weeks.
The fact that Lemieux will undergo radiation therapy is an indication that doctors found the cancer in its early stages, said Dr. Dennis Meisner, an oncologist at Shadyside Hospital in Pittsburgh.
Meisner added, "It is a cancer, and all types of cancer are very serious," Meisner said. "As a cancer, it can become life-threatening."