Legendary USMNT Soccer Player Recounts Cancer Journey

U.S. goalkeeper Kasey Keller was in peak condition when he felt hip pain. He went to get an MRI of his hip and quickly learned that his hip was fine; it just looked like someone who had played 700 professional matches. But his doctors saw something else.

Within a few days following a biopsy, he learned his diagnosis, a type of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) called large B cell lymphoma (LBCL), which is in the lymph nodes, according to the National Cancer Institute. He spoke with Men’s Journal about his journey in honor of World Cancer Day.

At first, he had no symptoms, and the doctors didn’t want to start his cancer treatment immediately, but when he started rapidly losing weight during the holiday season, when he ate everything in sight, they knew it was time. At this point, he kept his cancer a secret.

Sports Mentality

He started treatments with some successes and some failures; some treatments didn’t work at all. But he never lost sight of the goal; remission.

“When you go through 13 different treatments, do you worry that you're running out of options? Absolutely, but I was fortunate that this was the one to have the success,” he said.

When asked what kept him going, trying new treatments, and staying positive, he said, “I think it’s the pro sports mentality that you just control what you can control. You have a good attitude. And you just say, all right, let's do this.”

For years, Kasey silently faced cancer while in the public spotlight with his career as a professional athlete, and later, a sports broadcaster. Kasey underwent approximately 13 treatments before learning from his doctor about CAR T cell therapy, which is a type of treatment that uses your own white blood cells (T cells) to fight cancer. The treatment process includes blood collection, CAR T cell creation, administration, and side-effect monitoring.

Kasey was one of the first patients to receive Breyanzi* CAR T cell therapy, a one-time treatment, following its approval in 2021.

Cancer During COVID-19

Kasey is an ESPN sportscaster calling soccer games for his encore career after goalkeeping. Just when he was about to go public about his cancer journey, COVID-19 put a lot of public events on hold, and he was able to call matches from his chemotherapy chair at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. In one harrowing 96-hour continuous chemo infusion. Although it was brutal, he kept going.

During the winters, he kept snowboarding and staying active,” just to keep a level or normalcy,” he said.

Today, Kasey is in full remission, which is why he is breaking his silence to help others and raise awareness about cell therapy for World Cancer Day. He hopes his story will help others to keep going.