Dwyane Wade has opened up about the subtle symptoms he initially thought were "nothing", that turned out to be kidney cancer.
The former NBA star, 43, was diagnosed with stage 1 kidney cancer at the age of 41.
He admitted that he'd originally dismissed the symptoms he'd started noticing, before a routine check-up ended up revealing the truth,
Wade told Today: "I didn’t think nothing of it," revealing that he felt "pretty healthy" at the time.
He had booked himself a check-up for peace of mind after his father was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and mentioned a few subtle changes he'd noticed to his physician.
The basketball legend revealed that he told the doctor that he'd noticed a change with his urination, explaining: "I talked about just having a slow stream. Sometimes when I would go to the bathroom, my urine would come out a little slow."
The kidneys' core function in the body is to filter the blood and expell excess fluid and waste as urine.
Issues such as a change in the frequency or quantity of urine, pain during urination, or blood in the urine can all be possible signs of kidney cancer, though they can also be related to many other conditions.
Wade also revealed that he'd experienced some discomfort, too: "I had some cramps, some pain, a little bit at times in my stomach that I did not understand."
He admitted that he was surprised when his doctor ordered an MRI on the area he was feeling pain in and something was found on his kidneys, as he had only booked the appointment to check his prostate and stomach.
Persistent pain, like a dull ache, in the back, side, or abdomen can be a sign that affects around 10 percent of people with kidney cancer, according to the MD Anderson Cancer Center.
A suspicious mass was seen on Wade's kidney during a second MRI, prompting doctors to discuss the possibility of surgery to remove the lesion to prevent it from spreading further.
Wade admitted that hearing the word "cancer" left him "panicking", and he struggled to believe that he was affected by it as a former professional athlete.
He agreed to go ahead with the procedure after hearing it had the potential to spread to his lungs and brain if left untreated.
Wade's wife Gabrielle Union and his father accompanied him to the hospital for his surgery in December 2023, where he found out that the lesion had been caught at stage 1, the earliest stage.
The Hall of Famer admitted: "Thank God that we caught it early. This wasn’t something that was able to grow. It was about 3 centimeters on my kidney."
Going through the ordeal left Wade with a new appreciation for life, and is using his experience to help other people by urging them to get their symptoms checked out sooner rather than later.
He revealed: "When people hear cancer, obviously immediately they think it’s over. But it’s really helped me.
"I think being able to speak about it in an environment with other men that I know, a lot of us are not going to check ourselves out if we don’t feel nothing.
"If nothing is happening, we’re like, 'We’re good.' And I want us to get over that. I want us to grow from that."
Kidney cancer is among the 10 most common cancers in the US, with cases on the rise partly due to the advancement in imaging tests diagnosing those which may have previously gone unnoticed.
It affects twice as many men as women, and despite the increase in diagnosed cases, death rates for kidney cancer are declining, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS).
If caught early, kidney cancer can respond well to treatment and is even curable, with the five-year survival rate for stage 1 kidney cancer being 93 percent.