Teddi Mellencamp is opening up about her ongoing fight with stage 4 melanoma, sharing hopeful news with her fans while also shedding light on the long road ahead.
Just weeks after revealing that “all tumors stage 4 (metastasized melanoma in my brain and lungs) shrunk or disappeared,” Mellencamp, 43, provided further insight into her health journey on the May 14 episode of Two Ts In a Pod, the podcast she co-hosts with Tamra Judge.
“Last time, they had checked solely my brain, and those tumors are shrinking,” Mellencamp said. “And then, today I had the scan, where they checked my lungs and they are shrinking and one of them has shrunk so much you can barely even see it.”
While the former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star is seeing positive progress, she emphasized that her treatment is far from over. “So every four weeks for the next two years, I have to come in and get [immunotherapy] done,” she explained. “And then every three months I get another scan and we check to make sure that everything is where it is.”
Immunotherapy, according to the American Cancer Society, works by helping the body’s immune system “boost or change how the immune system works so it can find and attack cancer cells.” Though Mellencamp’s cancer hasn’t been declared gone, her doctor confirmed the signs are encouraging. “Everything’s just heading the correct way,” she shared.
When asked by Judge whether immunotherapy is controlling or curing the disease, Teddi Mellencamp replied, “It’s both.” She elaborated: “It’s making sure that it’s getting smaller and then let’s say that it gets so small that it disappears, it’s making sure that it won’t form anywhere else in my body.”
Despite the challenges that come with ongoing treatment, Teddi Mellencamp is trying to stay optimistic. “I was a little bit worried about having to live on immune therapy because you know how I am when I get super emotional on certain days,” she admitted. “But I think that the fact that this is all moving in a smooth path forward is really good news.”
Looking ahead, Mellencamp said she’s eager to return to podcasting in full. She added, “I hope to be back in ‘full force’ starting in June.”