Vitale is fighting melanoma again after the cancer returned and spread to his lung and liver cavity.

The dad of two took to Instagram to update fans on his treatment journey, writing alongside two photos of himself with two major members of his medical team, “Had my Immunotherapy treatments this morning at Sarasota Memorial Hospital under supervision of my oncologist Dr Rick Brown & nurse Sofie.

“[Prayers] or minimal side effects as that would be #awesomebaby.”

RELATED: Personalized Vaccine Can Help Keep Melanoma From Coming Back, Major Study Finds

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Vitale’s hope for “minimal side effects” reflects a real concern for melanoma patients. Immunotherapy can be highly effective, but it isn’t without risks.

According to Dr. Anna Pavlick, a medical oncologist at Weill Cornell Medicine, the severity of side effects depends largely on whether a patient receives one immunotherapy drug or a combination of two.

With a single-agent immunotherapy drug, patients have about a 10 to 15 percent chance of developing serious side effects such as severe rash or severe diarrhea. For patients with metastatic disease — meaning cancer that has spread, as in Vitale’s case — doctors may recommend two drugs together, which raises that risk to about 50 percent.

Immunotherapy for Melanoma Can Work, but Side Effects are a Risk

Immunotherapy side effects can be serious. “Of that 50% who get side effects, at least 10% are going to have severe side effects where we may need to stop their medicine,” Dr. Pavlick says.

Common side effects include fatigue, nausea or stomach discomfort, joint pain, diarrhea or constipation, cough, rash, loss of appetite, fever and changes in blood cell counts. More severe reactions, including allergic reactions, are also possible.

Patients should learn about potential side effects before starting treatment and report any symptoms to their doctor, since the medication may sometimes need to be stopped. Combination therapy carries a much higher risk of side effects, but it may also offer greater benefits.

RELATED: Immunotherapy Helps Your Body Help Itself

It’s wonderful to see Vitale maintaining his strength and positivity. In a statement shared through ESPN PR on X on April 13, 2026, he announced his diagnosis.

His statement read, “Today, my oncologist, Dr. Brown, informed me that my biopsy results have confirmed a diagnosis of melanoma in my lung and liver cavity. I will be starting immunotherapy shortly and I plan on winning this battle.

“I’ve beaten melanoma. I’ve beaten lymphoma. I’ve beaten vocal cord cancer. I’ve beaten lymph node cancer. I’m four-for-four and I’m fully confident I’m going to make it five-for-five.”

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Even while facing his own diagnosis, Vitale kept the focus on others.

“At 86 years young, I’ve lived a hell of a life, and I’m more motivated than ever to raise money for kids battling cancer. No child should ever have to go through what I’ve experienced,” he said in the same statement.

That mission continues with the 22nd Annual Dick Vitale Gala, set for Friday, May 7, 2027, in Sarasota, Florida—an event which raises money for pediatric cancer research through the V Foundation for Cancer Research.

Among this year’s honorees is fellow ESPN veteran and cancer survivor Jay Harris, who will receive the John Saunders Courage Award.

Harris, a SportsCenter anchor who was featured in SurvivorNet’s original documentary, “The Ripple Effect: The Jay Harris Story,” was diagnosed with prostate cancer in June 2025 and underwent surgery to remove it. He has since become a V Foundation ambassador and an outspoken advocate for early screening.

Other 2027 honorees include Terry Bradshaw, Rob Gronkowski, Marcus Freeman, Todd Golden, Laura Rutledge (Dick Vitale Spirit Award) and Russell Wilson (Visionary Award).

Just last year, Harris celebrated a successful prostate cancer surgery after choosing to spread awareness for the disease in an ESPN press release, where he explained, “I’m 60. It’s something I’ve always been cognizant of, and my doctor and I talk about it every annual visit. And I’m sharing it all with my 26-year-old son. Maybe I’m oversharing at times … but he needs to know.

“My treatment plan begins with surgery, which is scheduled for Tuesday, June 10. After my diagnosis, a PET scan showed no spreading. While that was quite the relief, I know that’s not the final word, and they’ll find out more when they go inside. My hope is that they won’t find anything extra so that I can return to work in a month or so, 100 percent healthy.”

Harris added, “My goal in sharing this is to join the many others who also want to normalize this conversation and hopefully provide a bit of guidance and preparation, just as it has been offered to me.”

RELATED: Longtime ESPN Anchor Jay Harris Says He’s ‘All Good’ After Successful Prostate Cancer Surgery: ‘Looking Forward To Getting Back To Work’

Melanoma Treatment Options

Melanoma treatment has come a long way. Survival rates have risen dramatically, thanks to a “treatment revolution,” say SurvivorNet’s experts. With breakthrough treatments like targeted therapy and immunotherapy now available, people who are diagnosed today have a much better chance of living a long and healthy life than ever before.

If you’re diagnosed with melanoma, there’s a good chance surgery is going to be the treatment your doctor recommends. In the early stages of the disease, removing the cancer should lead to a cure. The question is typically not whether you’ll get surgery, but which kind you’ll have.

WATCH: Dermatologic Surgeon Dr. Nima Gharavi, On The “Gold Standard Treatment” For Melanoma

For an early-stage melanoma that is close to the skin surface, Mohs surgery might be an option. This technique removes skin cancer, layer by layer, until all the cancer is gone.

In general, stage I melanoma surgery consists of the simple, in-office removal of the cancerous cells by a dermatologist. If the cancer is thicker, your surgeon will remove it through a technique called wide excision surgery.

The removal of stage II and III melanomas are performed by surgeons or surgical oncologists, not dermatologists. You may also have a sentinel lymph node biopsy to see if the melanoma has spread to the first lymph node where it’s most likely to travel. If your cancer has reached this first lymph node, it may have spread to other neighboring lymph nodes, and possibly to other organs. Where the cancer is will dictate your treatment.

After surgery, the removed tissue and lymph nodes will go to a specialist called a pathologist, who will measure the melanoma and find out if it has clear margins. Having clear margins means the cells around the area of tissue that was removed don’t contain any melanoma. When there aren’t any cancer cells left around the removed area, your cancer is less likely to come back.

Once your cancer spreads, treatment gets a little more complicated, but there are still ways to stop it. New treatments have vastly improved the outlook for people with metastatic, or stage IV, melanoma.

Targeted drugs and immunotherapy have been shown to be more effective than chemotherapy. So, with many more choices, there is no standard treatment. Treatment will vary based on your condition and whether there is recurrent disease.

Immunotherapy Advances Offer New Hope in Melanoma Treatment

Melanoma treatment, like all cancer care, is highly individualized—shaped by tumor stage, location, and patient-specific factors. Yet across the spectrum, a multi-pronged approach is common, often combining surgery, immunotherapy, targeted therapies, and radiation.

Among these, immunotherapy has emerged as a transformative force in oncology. Rather than attacking cancer cells directly, it empowers the body’s own immune system to do the work. One standout example is pembrolizumab—commercially known as Keytruda—a checkpoint inhibitor that’s reshaping outcomes for patients with advanced melanoma.

Checkpoint inhibitors, like pembrolizumab, help the immune system do its job by removing the “invisibility cloak” that cancer cells use to hide. Normally, a protein called PD-1 acts like a brake on T cells, keeping them from attacking healthy cells. But cancer takes advantage of that brake to avoid being targeted. Pembrolizumab blocks PD-1, releasing the brake and letting T cells go after cancer cells more aggressively—just like they’re meant to.

“We have known for a while now that immunotherapy is a very important weapon in the fight against melanoma,” Dr. Janice Mehnert, associate director of clinical research at NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center, previously explained to SurvivorNet.

“This study sought to investigate whether giving the anti-PD-1 antibody pembrolizumab to melanoma patients with bulky stage IIIB through stage IV disease may be superior to the standard of care approach, which is surgery followed by immunotherapy.”

The implications are significant. Instead of waiting until after surgery to deploy immunotherapy, researchers are exploring whether earlier intervention with pembrolizumab could improve outcomes for patients with more aggressive disease.

Used across multiple cancer types, immunotherapy has already revolutionized treatment paradigms. In melanoma, it’s not just a promising option—it’s a game-changer.

RELATED: Melanoma Relapse Treatment: Advances on the Horizon

FDA-Approved Immunotherapy for Melanoma

There are several FDA-approved immunotherapies for melanoma. Each is approved for certain instances of melanoma.

• Ipilimumab (Yervoy)
• Nivolumab (Opdivo)
• Pembrolizumab (Keytruda)
• Pembrolizumab + berahyaluronidase (Keytruda Qlex)
• Nivolumab + relatlimab (Opdualag)
• Atezolizumab (Tecentriq), in combination with vemurafenib and cobimetinib for BRAF-mutated melanoma
• Aldesleukin (Proleukin)
• Talimogene laherparepvec (Imlygic)
• Vusolimogene oderparepvec (Tudriqev)
• Lifileucel (Amtagvi)
• Tebentafusp-tebn (Kimmtrak)

Another FDA-approved option, Hepzato, delivers the chemotherapy drug melphalan directly to the liver for certain patients with uveal melanoma that has spread there.

The goal of treatment depends on the stage: preventing the cancer from coming back after surgery, or shrinking and controlling cancer that has spread. It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach. Some people may not be candidates for this therapy, and side effects vary from person to person.

Research has found that immunotherapy drugs such as Keytruda (pembrolizumab) and Opdivo (nivolumab) helped some people live longer.

The following immunotherapy drug combinations also exist for melanoma:

• Yervoy + Opdivo (ipilimumab + nivolumab) – extends survival further than single drugs, but with higher risk of side effects
• Opdivo + relatlimab (Opdualag) – newer combo, included in NCCN guidelines

Other immunotherapy approaches consist of:

• T-VEC (Imlygic) – a virus-based therapy injected directly into melanoma tumors
• Lifileucel (Amtagvi) – a newer cell-based therapy using a patient’s own immune cells (taken from the tumor, grown in a lab, then infused back in); used for advanced melanoma when other treatments haven’t worked

For those with the BRAF mutation, targeted drugs which shrink or slow the tumor can be a good option. This could include a combination of drugs, such as:

• Zelboraf (vemurafenib) and Cotellic (cobimetinib)
• Braftovi (encorafenib) and Mektovi (binimetinib)
• Tafinlar (dabrafenib) and Mekinist (trametinib)
• Zelboraf (vemurafenib) and Cotellic (cobimetinib) can also be combined with atezolizumab.

“Every patient is different and every situation is different,” said Dr. Pavlick. She emphasized that “there is no cookie-cutter recipe,” for treating stage IV melanoma.

RELATED: There Is No “Cookie Cutter Recipe” for Treating Stage Four Melanoma

Immunotherapy Side Effects During Treatment for Melanoma

A study recently published in JAMA Oncology is shedding light on the long-term side effects of immunotherapy in melanoma patients—revealing that chronic complications may be more widespread than previously thought.

“Chronic and long-lasting side effects were more common than we expected and involved a variety of often overlooked organs like the thyroid, salivary glands, and joints,” Dr. Douglas Johnson, senior author of the study and associate professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, previously told SurvivorNet.

WATCH: Tell Your Doctor About Immunotherapy Side Effects

Despite the findings, Dr. Johnson emphasized the groundbreaking nature of immunotherapy, especially anti-PD-1 drugs. “It has been an absolute game-changer for patients with melanoma,” he noted. “I think the first thing to recognize is how really transformative the Anti-PD-1 drugs have been… patients can have very long-term responses to treatment.”

Still, for patients with advanced melanoma—especially those who’ve undergone surgical removal and have a low risk of recurrence—Dr. Johnson advised more nuanced conversations around treatment. “So determining whether the risks of the side effects, weighing the benefits of treatment with the risks of the side effects, can be an important consideration,” he said. “What our study did was we basically saw that some of these side effects were more common, really, than had been previously reported.”

Reported side effects can range from mild to severe, including dry throat, inflammation of the eye blood vessels, numbness, or tingling. And for many, the decision comes down to weighing symptom severity with potential longevity benefits.

Dr. Anna Pavlick, another expert in melanoma care, added context around immunotherapy management. “Depending upon the severity, it depends upon how we manage it,” she said.

“The percentage of patients who have very serious side effects from immunotherapy is contingent upon whether patients will get one medicine or a combination of two medicines.”

She explained that patients receiving a single immunotherapy drug face a 10–15% chance of experiencing severe reactions like rash or diarrhea. But for patients with metastatic melanoma, a dual-drug regimen—though more effective at controlling the cancer—comes with about a 50% chance of developing side effects.

Understanding Melanoma & The Warning Signs

Melanoma starts in the same cells that give your skin, hair, and eyes their color. In melanoma, the cells change in a way that allows them to spread to other organs.

Changes to a mole you’ve had for a while or a new growth on your skin could be signs of melanoma, according to SurvivorNet’s experts. You’ll want to watch them and tell your doctor about any changes you notice.

WATCH: How do you perform a skin check using the ABCDEs?

SurvivorNet experts recommend avoiding unprotected sun exposure because ultraviolet (UV) radiation can lead to melanoma. Tanning beds pose ultraviolet radiation risks for skin cancer and should be avoided. Many dermatologists recommend using spray tans to reduce the risk of melanoma skin cancer.

The most important thing to look out for when it comes to finding melanoma is a new spot on your skin or a spot that is changing in size, shape, or color, SurvivorNet’s medical experts say.

WATCH: Beating Aggressive Melanoma: An Immunotherapy Success Story

The most important thing to look out for when it comes to finding melanoma is a sudden, new spot on your skin or a spot that is quickly changing in size, shape, or color.

Dr. Cecelia Larocca, a dermatologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, recommends implementing the ABCDE rule to determine if a mole requires further examination.

The ABCDE rule:

• A: Asymmetry of the mole, or when one half of the mole doesn’t match the other
• B: Border irregularity or Bleeding
• C: Color change either lightening or darkening of a mole
• D: Diameter greater than 6mm or enlarging moles
• E: Evolving size, shape or color.

WATCH: Dr. Cecila Larocca on the ABCDEs of checking moles for signs of skin cancer

Melanoma that moves into the body, away from the skin, becomes an entirely different treatment journey for patients.

Questions to Ask Your Doctor

If you are diagnosed with skin cancer, you may have some questions for your doctor. SurvivorNet suggests the following to help you on your cancer journey.

• What type of skin cancer do I have?
• What treatment options exist for my type of melanoma?
• Will insurance cover this treatment?
• Would treatment through a clinical trial make sense for me?
• What resources exist to help manage my anxiety because of this diagnosis?

Check out SurvivorNet’s proprietary AI tool “My Health Questions,” designed specifically for patients and caregivers.

WATCH: How One Cancer Survivor and Her Sister Used “My Health Questions” to Navigate Care

Contributing: SurvivorNet Staff

Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.

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