BYU basketball: Coach's cancer is in remission

PROVO — The pancreatic cancer that has inflicted BYU basketball coach Dave Rose is in remission.

The cancer required emergency surgery earlier this month in Las Vegas to remove Rose's spleen and part of his pancreas, but the prognosis the Cougar coach's recovery is now very favorable.

"With the scan we see, there's no further evidence of cancer," Dr. Scott Samuelson said Wednesday in a press conference at BYU to update Rose's condition. "That doesn't mean there's not a possibility that the cancer couldn't come back at some point, but the encouraging thing about that is if it were to come back it would likely come back a long time from now."

And because recent CAT scans at Huntsman Cancer Institute show that physicians at Spring Valley Hospital in Las Vegas were successful in removing all of the cancerous tumor from Rose's pancreas, he has no need at this point for chemotherapy, radiation treatment or further surgery. Doctors don't believe Rose's cancer has spread outside his pancreas.

"These cancers, when they do reoccur, normally don't reoccur for a number of years, and when they do reoccur they tend to be slow-growing cancers that are frequently much more manageable than we typically think of with pancreatic cancer," Samuelson said.

Every three to six months, Rose will have a scan to make sure the cancer has not returned.

"He will be in close observation, which will go on indefinitely," Samuelson said.

For now, all that is being prescribed is rest to recuperate from the surgery so Rose can regain the strength needed to resume his regular everyday activities. For the next two months, Rose will be on a controlled schedule and will delegate much of his coaching and recruiting duties to his staff.

"I believe that I am a lucky guy," Rose said in discussing his illness publicly for the first time. "I believe that I've been hit with a challenge but that it's a challenge that is manageable, a challenge that I can handle and continue to do what I love to do ... It's been as difficult as anything I've ever been through, but I feel like I got a second chance and I'm ready to go."

E-MAIL: jimr@desnews.com