In a new interview with Reality Check TV EXODUS‘S Tom Hunt offered an update on his health, more than three years after he underwent a successful total gastrectomy during his battle with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the stomach. The drummer said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I’m fine, I’m doing great. With the health and the cancer, yes, everything is fine. They take pictures a lot. You can’t see anything. So I just go out into the world and live my life.”
In February 2023 hunting told Radioactive MikeZHost of the 96.7 KCAL-FM program “Wired in the Empire”on how he was first diagnosed with cancer: “The first thing that happened was that I lost weight and I wasn’t hungry anymore. It’s hard to explain what that feels like. I’ve had these flare-ups in the past and it was always anxiety or something. But this felt different. And it lasted. I went to doctors. And they did a series of scans. They didn’t see anything on the scans. All the blood work was good. And then they sent in a camera.
“I strongly advise anyone who has a bowel problem, if (the problems) persist, to do a CT scan first. Tell them you want an endoscopy. That’s the best test there is. In hindsight, it probably saved my ass.”
Tom continued, “I was taking antacids, like Pepcid and stuff. And I was probably taking this drug Zantac, which they say causes cancer. I told my doctors that too. Zantac has a lot of the same stuff in it as your Pepcids and your others. And ultimately, you shouldn’t have to take that crap for about a year. So that was there. It was an esophageal cancer that started in what’s called the cardinal region of my stomach; it formed there and caused me to not be able to eat. I couldn’t burp. That was another problem. I had this tumor in me and I couldn’t burp. And as soon as they gave me my first dose of chemo, before the surgery, something loosened up there and I was able to burp. It felt so good. (Laughs)”
Accordingly huntinghe “ended up having two different types of cancer. They found a tumor in my stomach,” he said. “Then they do what’s called a laparoscopic surgery, where they put two things in you. They make two incisions and put a camera in you to physically examine the region and the outside region. And mine was in a weird place; mine was in my stomach. So, OK, they wanted to examine the outside of the stomach lining — some crazy tests they have to do. But that’s all part of the process to make you a candidate for the surgery. When they did the laparoscopic (procedure) on me, that was two incisions, a camera that goes in, and another tool that pushes your organs out of the way so the camera can do its job. So they found mesothelioma nodules on my abdominal wall.”
When asked if the doctors said there was anything specific that caused his cancer, such as eating habits, lifestyle, home or work environment, genetics or something else, hunting replied: “I asked the specialist, ‘Did I do something that caused this? Did I fix the brakes on my car and smell asbestos or some shit?’ And he said it could have been anything. The cancer could have just had an environmental change and just happened.
“It’s funny because if I hadn’t had the original cancer, I would never have needed laparoscopic surgery and they would never have discovered the mesothelioma,” Tom explained. “But for a minute when they did that test, they thought they were going to see the same kind of cancer they had seen in my stomach. So there was a minute when I was stage four plus plus plus, and they said, ‘Give him chemo. Make sure he’s OK.’ I wouldn’t have been a candidate at all receive any kind of surgery. So they found out it was a different kind of cancer in my stomach. That makes you a candidate for the surgery and subsequent treatment to try to remove any mesothelioma nodes they would find there.”
Regarding his recovery after surgery, hunting said: “They removed 42 lymph nodes and my stomach and did this whole crazy surgery – so two surgeries in one surgery – and they didn’t find a single spot of cancer in any of the lymph nodes, which is like, ‘holy shit.’ When you go through that, it’s the fucking jackpot. The best three words you can hear are ‘nothing to see.'”
“Luckily it was… After the surgery, I got six months or five and a half months of immunotherapy because they found that the chemo wasn’t fighting the cancer like it should have, so they did the surgery. It trains your immune system to go out and kill the malignant cells that it finds. That’s pretty high-tech crap. And I benefit from it too.”
Tom added: “Science is great. And I’ve had a lot of good people along the way to talk to and help me. And that’s kind of where I am now. I want to listen to someone who recently heard this news.
“I’m grateful. And I’m definitely one of the lucky ones. Science is great and what it can do today for people in my situation and others is far better than what they could do even five years ago.”
In December 2021 hunting said the “Raise your dukes” Podcast that he wanted to use his experiences as a cancer survivor to connect with others who may be in a similar situation.
“I’m not qualified right now, but I think in a few months they’ll consider me qualified to talk to other people about this disease, and that’s what I’m going to do,” he said. “Because I want people to know about it and get checked out. I’m just going public with it – I’m not active on social media, but what I read on the website, EXODUS (Websites) were saying things like, ‘Hey, I have bowel problems too,’ and ‘I’m going to get checked out now.’ I hope people get the answers they’re looking for.”
“I’m not saying the medicines they give you for your gut are bad. They help you. But if you think you have a gut problem, tell them you want to get checked out. Because some of these scans and tests don’t detect what’s going on in there.
“Since I’ve been on this trip, dude, they’ve been fucking scanning me all the time,” Tom added. “Because they also want to see how I respond to what they’re doing. So it’s all part of science and advancing science. If they can help me live – and I love my life – and I can help them advance the science to help the next group of people who you know are going to get this crap, it’s a win-win.”
hunting returned to his EXODUS Bandmates on stage in October 2021 at Aftershocks Festival in Sacramento, California.
A GoFundMe campaign aims to help hunting with medical expenses had previously raised more than $114,000 – including $5,000 Tom‘s former EXODUS Bandmate, current METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammettand $1,500 from FOZZY Singer and wrestling superstar Chris Jericho.
EXODUS released his latest album, “Persona non grata”in November 2021 about Nuclear Blast Records.
