Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones has revealed that he quietly battled stage 4 melanoma for more than a decade, crediting an experimental immunotherapy drug with saving his life.
Jones said he was first diagnosed in 2010 and underwent four surgeries over the next 10 years — two on his lungs and two on his lymph nodes. He credited the drug PD-1, short for Programmed Cell Death Protein 1, for his recovery.
The 81-year-old made the disclosure in the upcoming Netflix series America’s Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys, in which he mentions receiving cancer treatments.
Jones is the NFL’s most visible owner, leading the league’s most valuable franchise, valued by Forbes at more than $10 billion. In 2017, while still battling cancer, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
"I was saved by a fabulous treatment and great doctors and a real miracle [drug] called PD-1 [therapy],” Jones said in a recent interview. "I went into trials for that PD-1 and it has been one of the great medicines."
Jones added, "I now have no tumors."
According to the American Cancer Society, PD-1 therapy works by targeting a checkpoint protein on immune cells, helping them attack cancer cells that otherwise evade the immune system. Stage 4 melanoma means the cancer had spread beyond the skin, in Jones’ case to his lungs and lymph nodes.
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