Teddi Mellencamp has given fans a new optimistic update on her cancer.
The former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star first received her melanoma diagnosis in 2022, which advanced to stage four in February and metastasized to her lungs and brain. She underwent major brain surgery in February that removed four tumors, more than doctors expected to find, Mellencamp revealed. Other hard-to-reach tumors couldn’t be removed.
Mellencamp turned to Instagram on Wednesday to share that all of her tumors have shrunken. “I have 6ish more weeks of immunotherapy, and doctors believe I will be healed if everything stays on course,” she wrote in the caption.
Currently, she has only two more immunotherapy sessions left before “hopefully I am done and I will be cancer-free.” Immunotherapy is a type of cancer treatment that uses the body’s immune system to fight the cancer.
“I'm going to keep a positive outlook because that's the way my doctor just spoke to me. He's like, ‘You did this, you got this,’” said the former reality television star.
The news comes a week after she opened up about why she hasn’t asked her doctors about her chances of survival during an interview with Nightline. “I learned this isn’t the best question to ask if you’re doing immunotherapy because immunotherapy has only been around 10 years,” she said.
Mellencamp, however, has been given updates about how likely she is to live amid her cancer treatment.
“One of my favorite things to ask is, ‘How long I got? What are my chances?” she continued. “And they oftentimes say, 50/50. [I’m like] ‘50/50! I wouldn’t buy a car that’s only gonna drive 50 percent chance of the time. I don’t want this.’”
She said her doctor clarified: “No, it’s only because that’s how long immunotherapy has been around, so that’s how long the study has worked.”
Earlier in the interview, the reality star shared how the immunotherapy has taken a toll on her body.
“I would say the hardest thing for me is I’ve always been a super active person, and, like, I cannot do the things I was used to doing,” she explained, before later noting that she could barely walk one mile when she’s “used to running seven miles” a day.
She also shared another reason why her cancer has been challenging, confessing: “I really like to have control, and this is completely out of my control. And for the first time, I’m really scared.”
Last month, Mellencamp told her Instagram followers that yet more tumors were found in her body after doctors removed more tumors than they originally expected during her surgery.
“Update from my scans today,” Mellencamp captioned an Instagram post with a photo of herself. “I have multiple tumors in my brain that weren’t able to be removed via surgery. I also have two tumors in my lung. These are all metastases of my melanoma.”
She has also opened up about how she talks to her young children about her cancer. Teddi and her estranged husband, Edwin Arroyave, share Slate, 12; Cruz, 10; and Dove, 5.
“I’m fighting for my life,” she said during an interview with Us Weekly. “But also for my family’s life and all the people I love.”
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