Tony Gwynn to begin treatment for parotid cancer

Some unfortunate news to report.

Former Padres great Tony Gwynn told Bill Center of the San Diego Union-Tribune that he will soon begin radiation and chemotherapy treatments for parotid cancer, a cancer of the salivary glands.

“I had surgery for a parotid tumor in 1997 and again three years ago and both those times there was no cancer,” said Gwynn. “But this time they found a malignancy. They took out three lymph nodes and did all the tests and the results showed cancer in the parotid.

“The doctors have told me they feel they caught the cancer early and there was not much of it there.”

Gwynn, 50, said he had been trying to keep his cancer “secret” and was “pulling it off” because of his severe back problem. He took a leave of absence from his duties as a Padres television analyst back in August due to three bulging disks in his back.

The Hall of Famer speculates that the cancer may have been caused by his use of chewing tobacco, although a neck and throat specialist at the UCSD Moores Cancer Center told Center that there have been no studies showing a link between parotid cancer and chewing tobacco.

Determined to treat the cancer “aggressively,” Gwynn now faces seven to eight weeks of five-day-a-week radiation treatments and once-a-week chemotherapy treatments. He still plans to return as the baseball coach at San Diego State.

We’re rooting for you, Tony.