UnTouchableEthan Zohn on itchy skin, two stem cell transplants, and getting back to the game
Ethan Zohn shared this about their own health, publicly. Everything below is written in our own words, from the sources listed at the end.
Ethan Zohn won Survivor: Africa in the early 2000s. In 2009 he was 35, a former professional footballer, training for the New York City marathon, when he was diagnosed with lymphoma.
What he noticed first was not a lump. He was exercising every day and his skin was intensely itchy. It was around four months after that itch began that a swollen lymph node appeared in his neck, and scans found a mass in his chest measuring six centimetres by twelve.
He had lost his own father to colorectal cancer when he was fourteen. He has said doctors could not tell him why he, or so many others, developed lymphoma.
His treatment ran to several rounds of chemotherapy, twenty-two rounds of radiotherapy and a stem cell transplant. Twenty months later, the cancer came back. What he credits for the remission that followed is a targeted therapy that had newly become available, together with a second stem cell transplant — this time using stem cells donated by his brother.
At the time of this interview he had been in remission for nine years, and had gone back to compete on Survivor: Winners at War. He has said that while he was ill he dreamed and prayed he would live long enough to play the game again.
He now speaks publicly during Blood Cancer Awareness Month. Nothing here is medical advice. If you have a lump, itchy skin, night sweats or unexplained weight loss, the NHS advice is to see your GP.
In their own words
One of the sources for this story is an interview with Ethan Zohn. You can watch it here.
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Key moments
A symptom that did not look like cancer
2009
Intensely itchy skin while training every day. It was about four months before a swollen lymph node appeared in his neck.
Diagnosis
2009, aged 35
Scans found a mass in his chest of six by twelve centimetres. He was diagnosed with lymphoma.
First treatment
After diagnosis
Several rounds of chemotherapy, twenty-two rounds of radiotherapy, and a stem cell transplant.
It came back
Twenty months later
A newly available targeted therapy, plus a second stem cell transplant using his brother's stem cells, is what he credits for his remission.
Back to the game
Nine years into remission
He returned to compete on Survivor: Winners at War, having hoped while ill that he would live to play again.
What this story is about
Where this came from
Every story here is built only from what the person said publicly themselves. These are the sources we used.
'Survivor' Winner Ethan Zohn Shares Story Of Surviving Lymphoma
CBS 2 News New York · Interview
'Survivor' Ethan Zohn Opens Up About Wellness for Cancer Survivors
Cancer Health · Article they wrote · 11 January 2021
Ethan Zohn is not affiliated with and has not endorsed UnTouchable.
Published 19 September 2026. Something wrong here? Ask us to correct or remove this story.
If you want to talk to someone about cancer
You do not have to be newly diagnosed, or in treatment, or the person who is ill. These are free, and they are for whatever you have on your mind, including the parts that are not medical — money, work, or how to tell people.
Macmillan Support Line — 0808 808 00 00
Free, 8am to 8pm every day, for anyone affected by cancer. Nurses, and advisers on money and work as well.
Maggie's centres — Find your nearest centre (opens in a new tab)
Free drop-in support in the grounds of NHS cancer hospitals. No referral, no appointment, and family and friends can go too.
You are not the only one
Other stories about the same conditions.
Delta Goodrem
Delta Goodrem woke at 3.31 in the morning certain something was wrong
Content note — this story covers a subject some people would rather choose when to read.
Delta Goodrem was eighteen. Her first album had gone to number one at home in Australia and stayed there for months, she had just taken a third number one single, she had debuted at number two in the UK, and she was booked on a flight to the United States. She had also been unwell for a while, in ways that were easy to put down to the schedule. Rashes. Night sweats — something she says she only understood the significance of later. An exhaustion she kept overriding, because she is not someone who surrenders easily, which she says has been to her detriment. When she saw a doctor she was told it was stress, and she understands why: she was flying to Britain for a weekend of television and flying back to be on set. Then she found a lump in her neck. Small enough that you could not see it, she says — you could only feel it. It grew. One night she woke at 3.31 in the morning soaked through, frozen with fear after a nightmare. Her first thought was that someone had broken into the flat, that there was danger in the room. She rang her mother, then a friend, then the runner from the set. She told all of them the same thing: something is going to happen to me. They told her she was tired. She said no, she was very scared. She later wrote a song called 3.31. Her mother and her manager booked her in at the hospital for the Monday. On the Sunday she was on the front page of the national paper for the first time. On the Monday she went in on her own, and fainted during a biopsy needle into her neck. She says she saw it in the doctor's face before anyone said anything — that he knew. That evening there was a knock at the door and her mother and her brother walked in. She asked what was wrong. That was the first time she heard the word cancer. She had surgery the next morning. There was a mass in her neck, and she says it had spread beyond it. Within days the news was out — somebody at the hospital had said something — and by the Friday she had to make it public. Camera crews sat outside the family home. Letters arrived in numbers she still talks about. A stranger flew in from Hobart, knocked on the door with a cake, and was let in by mistake. Elton John rang her on her first day of chemotherapy to wish her luck, and she says you never forget people who are kind to you when you are that far down. She kept a diary through it. What it says, she says, is that she felt trapped — like an animal backed into a corner with nowhere to go, just shaking. She describes lying awake in the middle of the night trying not to fall asleep, in case something happened. At the ARIA Awards that year she collected the statues she had dreamed about all her life. It was the first time she had seen herself with no hair. She wore a blonde wig. Nothing here is medical advice. The NHS lists a painless lump or swelling — most often in the neck, armpit or groin — as the most common first sign of Hodgkin lymphoma, and night sweats among the others. It says these symptoms are far more often caused by something else, and to see a GP if you have them, because the earlier it is found the better treatment tends to work.