Cowboys' Jerry Jones Says He Survived Stage 4 Skin Cancer in 2010, Discusses Treatment

A comment by Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones in the recently released Netflix documentary about the franchise led to the revelation of his cancer diagnosis over a decade ago.

Per Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, Jones said in the fifth episode of America’s Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys that he underwent treatment at the MD Anderson Cancer Center "about a dozen years ago." This comment prompted a question to Jones on Tuesday from Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News, who was told that the 82-year-old had fought stage 4 melanoma in 2010.

The Melanoma Research Alliance explained that a stage 4 diagnosis means that the skin cancer cells have metastasized to other parts of the body. Jones told Townsend that an experimental trial drug saved his life.

"I was saved by a fabulous treatment and great doctors and a real miracle [drug] called PD-1 [therapy]," Jones said. "I went into trials for that PD-1 and it has been one of the great medicines. I now have no tumors."

Per Townsend, the full name of the experimental drug is Programmed Cell Death Protein 1, and the therapy has been found to help the immune system "fight cancer cells by blocking PD-1, thus enabling T cells to better recognize and destroy cancer cells."

Jones didn't specify when he began the experimental trial with PD-1. However, Townsend reported that over the ensuing decade after his cancer diagnosis, he underwent four surgeries: two lung surgeries and two lymph node surgeries.

The revelation of Jones' cancer treatment in the documentary arose during the exploration of the deterioration of his relationship with former Cowboys head coach Jimmy Johnson. Jones said early in the episode that a physician at MD Anderson told him: "You need to do a lot of meditation. Make a list of 10 people who can just boil your blood. Start with the one at the top and wish for them the greatest things you can wish for. ... At No. 1, I wrote down the name 'Jimmy Johnson.'"

Jones' survival of stage 4 melanoma is nothing short of remarkable, as the American Cancer Society states that patients typically have a five-year survival rate of 35 percent. However, a study by the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center suggests that new treatments have increased the five-year survival rate to 50 percent, giving renewed hope to Jones and others who have battled the illness.