Joe Paterno, the Penn State football coach who lost his job amid allegations of child sex abuse against his former defensive coordinator, has a treatable form of lung cancer, his son said Friday.
Scott Paterno, son of the Hall of Fame coach, said in a statement provided to The Associated Press Friday that doctors are optimistic about his father's 84-year, Paterno will make a full recovery.
The news came shortly after Penn State, said the NCAA to review the management of the school of a sexual abuse scandal involving children of former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky. Paterno was fired by the board on November 9 for not doing more than one allegation of abuse against Sandusky to notify their superiors.
"Last weekend, my father was diagnosed with a treatable form of cancer during a follow-up visit to lung disease," Scott Paterno said in the brief statement. The doctor's visit came the same weekend of the school played its first game since the 1960s, without the Nittany Lions leading Paterno - Penn State lost 17-14 to Nebraska.
"As everyone can appreciate, this is a deeply personal matter for my parents, and we simply ask that his privacy be respected as he proceeds with treatment," Scott Paterno said.
Paterno, 84, coach of all time, winning the Division I football history, was fired last week amid the uproar raised by the handling of allegations of abuse.
Treatment options include surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, CNN chief medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen said.
"It is such a difficult, difficult cancer to beat," she said. "Often, it is found pretty late."
Cohen said that catching the disease early is crucial to improving chances for survival. White men who discover their lung cancer early have a 50-50 chance of being alive five years later. If they catch it late, they have a 4% chance of being alive five years later, Cohen said.
If Paterno is a candidate for surgery, Cohen told "The Situation Room," he may lose at least 20% of his lungs.
To put health problems added to the problems of Paterno during a difficult period does not begin to capture the last two weeks. The scandal disorder Sandusky tarnished the reputation of a coach and a football program, which once boasted the slogan "Success with honor."
Sandusky was once expected to succeed Paterno, but he retired in 1999, shortly after learning he would not do the job.
The illness didn't change the perception of how Paterno handled the Sandusky situation, said Tessa Drawbaugh, 26, of State College. "But as far as other than that, he's an icon," she said. "Everybody wants him to be well."
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