Isabella Strahan, the daughter of NFL legend Michael Strahan, has announced she is cancer-free. The 19-year-old had been battling medulloblastoma, a malignant brain tumor since last year and announced on her YouTube page that her cancer treatment is over and her scans are clear.
She received treatment at Duke Children’s Hospital & Health Center in Durham, North Carolina, and has documented her journey online. In her newest YouTube video, titled “Goodbye Hospital,” she documented her last appointment and MRI. “Great scans, everything was clear. Cancer-free,” she said. “Everything is great. I don’t have another doctor’s appointment until October.”
“I miss my doctors already and everyone who has helped me because they’re all so nice,” she said. “Like I feel like I’m just saddened today knowing that I wasn’t going to be going back for a while because I love them so much.”
She said this will be her last hospital vlog until October, but she will probably vlog her move-in back to the University of Southern California, where she goes to school.
Strahan first announced her cancer diagnosis in January, alongside her dad on “Good Morning America.” She told her dad’s co-host, Robbin Roberts that started experiencing headaches in October when she was a freshman in college.
Strahan initially thought she had vertigo, but her symptoms worsened. “I woke up probably at like 1 p.m.,” she said. “I dreaded waking up. But I was throwing up blood.” She texted her sister about it, who then notified their family.
Her doctors found a golf-ball-size tumor that was growing rapidly in the back of her brain and she received emergency surgery days later – the day before she turned 19.
She then received rounds of radiation and said on “GMA” that she had just finished the treatment and got to ring the bell – a custom for cancer patients who make milestones in their treatments. Her twin sister Sophia, her dad and her dad’s girlfriend were there for the occasion.
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In a social media post from the day, Michael Strahan called his daughter “a superwoman.”
“It was great. It was very exciting because it’s been a long 30 sessions. Six weeks,” Isabella Strahan said on “GMA.”
Her dad, who played 15 seasons with the New York Giants, said she is an “amazing” daughter and he is the “luckiest man in the world.”
“I know she’s going through it, but I know that we’re never given more than we can handle and that she is going to crush this,” he said.
Medulloblastoma is a cancerous tumor that starts in the lower back part of the brain, called the cerebellum, which helps control muscle coordination, balance and movement, according to Mayo Clinic.
This type of cancer often occurs in young children, but can occur at any age. While it is rare, it is the most common cancerous brain tumor in kids and is more prevalent in families with a history of conditions linked to cancer.
In this type of tumor, the cells grow quickly and can start to spread through the fluid that protects your brain and spinal cord and start to spread to other parts of the brain.
Symptoms can include dizziness, nausea, vomiting, unsteady walking and tiredness. Surgery and treatments like chemo and radiation are often used to treat the cancer.