Martina Navratilova smiles during the Wimbledon No. 1 Court Celebration on May 19, 2019 in London, England. Getty Images
Martina Navratilova, widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, has been diagnosed with two types of cancer, Tennis.com told her in an article published Monday. The 66-year-old said doctors diagnosed her with stage 1 throat cancer and an unrelated form of breast cancer.
“This double whammy is serious but still fixable and I’m hoping for a favorable outcome,” she told the outlet. “It will stink for a while, but I will fight with everyone [I’ve] got.”
Navratilova said she first noticed a sign of cancer last November during the Women’s Tennis Association Finals in Fort Worth, Texas. There she noticed that a lymph node in her neck had become enlarged, and when it did not decrease on its own, she underwent a biopsy.
She was diagnosed with stage 1 throat cancer, which is due to the human papillomavirus, or HPV. HPV is a common sexually transmitted infection believed to cause about 70% of oropharyngeal cancers in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Navratilova told Tennis.com that doctors gave a strong prognosis and that she will start treatment this month.
This isn’t Navratilova’s first battle with cancer. She was previously diagnosed with a non-invasive form of breast cancer called ductal carcinoma in situ, or DCIS, in February 2010 after a routine mammogram. This form of breast cancer, known as stage 0 breast cancer, accounts for about 1 in 5 new breast cancer diagnoses, according to the American Cancer Society, which says “almost all women” with this diagnosis can be cured.
After that diagnosis, she underwent a lumpectomy and six weeks of radiation, and announced later that year that she was “cancer-free.”
According to the International Tennis Hall of Fame, Navratilova has won more singles tournaments, doubles tournaments and matches than any other tennis player since the Open Era began in 1968.
A native of Czechoslovakia, she became a US citizen in 1981 and has been a major titleholder since 1975, when she won doubles at the French Open. She has been named Tour Player of the Year seven times by the Women’s Tennis Association and has been ranked by several news and sports organizations as one of the top athletes of specific years and of the century.
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