In a recent interview with Reality Check TV, Exodus drummer Tom Hunting shared an encouraging update on his health, over three years after undergoing a total gastrectomy following a diagnosis of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the stomach. Hunting expressed optimism, stating: "I'm doing good, doing great. With health and cancer, everything, yes. Everything is good. They take pictures often. They don't see anything in there. So I just kind of go out there in the world and live my life."
Hunting first noticed symptoms when he experienced unexplained weight loss and a loss of appetite, which he initially attributed to anxiety. However, when the symptoms persisted, he underwent a series of scans that revealed nothing abnormal. Eventually, an endoscopy revealed the presence of cancer, which led to his diagnosis.
Hunting reflected on that experience last February, talking to Radioactive MikeZ, host of the 96.7 KCAL-FM program "Wired In The Empire", and emphasized the importance of early detection, particularly through endoscopy: "I urge anybody who's having a gut problem, if the problems persist, they're gonna do a CT scan first. Tell them you want an endoscopy. That's the best test out there. It probably saved my ass, looking back."
The drummer recounted his journey, including the discovery of a tumor in his stomach and subsequent treatment: "I was taking antacid stuff, like Pepcid and whatever. And I probably took that Zantac drug that they're talking about causing cancer. I brought that up to my doctors too. Zantac has a lot of the same stuff that your Pepcids and your other ones have in it too. And at the end of the day, you shouldn't have to take that shit for, like, a year. So, that was there. It was an esophageal type of cancer that showed up in what is called the cardinal region of my stomach; it was forming in there and causing me not to eat. I couldn't burp. That was another one. I had this tumor inside me, and I couldn't burp. And as soon as they gave me my first dose of chemo, before the surgery, something loosened up in there and I was able to burp. It felt so good.”
He mentioned the irony that the initial cancer led to the discovery of a second, different type of cancer during a laparoscopic procedure. This unexpected finding ultimately made him a candidate for surgery and further treatment. Hunting recalled a pivotal moment during the testing when he thought he might be facing a terminal diagnosis, only to learn that he was eligible for surgery due to the distinct nature of the cancers.
“They found a tumor inside my stomach. So then they do what they call a laparoscopic surgery, which they send two things inside of you. They make two cuts and they send a camera inside of you to physically explore the region and the outside region. And mine was in a weird spot; mine was in my stomach. So, okay, they wanted to check out the outside of the stomach lining — some crazy testing that they've gotta do. But it's all part of the process to make you a candidate for the surgery. When they did the laparoscopic procedure with me, it's two incisions, it's a camera that goes in, and another tool that moves your organs out of the way for this camera to go do its job. So they found nodules of mesothelioma on my abdomen wall."
"I asked the specialist, I was, like, 'Did I do something to cause this? Did I do a brake job on my car and sniffed asbestos or some shit?' And he said it could have been anything. That cancer could have been just environmental, and it just happened. It's funny, 'cause had I not had the original cancer, I never would have needed a laparoscopic procedure to begin with, and they never would have found the mesothelioma. But for a minute, when they were doing that test, what they thought they were looking at was the same type of cancer that they saw in my stomach. So there was a minute there where I was, like, stage four plus plus plus, like, 'Give him chemo. Keep him comfortable.' I wouldn't have been a candidate to even get any kind of surgery. So they found out it was a different type of cancer that was in my stomach. That makes you a candidate to get the surgery and the treatment after to try to knock out any nodules of mesothelioma that they would find in there."
Hunting's surgery was extensive, involving the removal of his stomach and 42 lymph nodes, yet none of the lymph nodes showed any signs of cancer. Reflecting on his recovery, he described it as a fortunate outcome: "They took out 42 lymph nodes and my stomach and all this crazy surgery — like two surgeries in one surgery — and they didn't find one speck of cancer in one of the lymph nodes, which is, like, 'Holy shit.' If you're going through it, that's the fucking jackpot. The best three words you can hear are 'nothing to see'.”
After surgery, Hunting underwent months of immunotherapy, which he credits with helping his immune system fight any remaining cancer cells. He expressed gratitude for the advances in medical science that have aided in his recovery, acknowledging the significant progress made in cancer treatment in recent years.
"Fortunately, it's been… After the surgery, I got six months, or five and a half months of immunotherapy, 'cause they found out that the chemo didn't affect the cancer like they wanted it to, so they did the surgery. It trains your immune system to go out and kill rogue cells that it finds. It's pretty high-tech shit. And I'm a beneficiary of that too."
"Science is great. And I had a lot of good people to talk to along the way to help me out. And that's kind of where I'm at now. I wanna be that ear for somebody who's recently getting told that news. I'm thankful. And I'm definitely one of the lucky ones. Science is killer, and what they're able to do for people in my situation and others nowadays is leaps and bounds from what they could do even five years ago."
