EXODUS drummer Tom Hunting, who underwent a total gastrectomy back in July 2021, discussed his battle with stomach cancer (squamous cell carcinoma) during an appearance on ex-EXODUS singer Rob Dukes’ podcast “Put Up Your Dukes”.
Tom said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Through that, they also found mesothelioma on my abdomen, and I got surgery for that too. And that’s kind of what they’re keeping an eye on now. And I’m getting immunotherapy.
“Chemo is like a nuclear bomb — they put it in you, and it goes in there and kills everything: cancerous cells, healthy cells; it all just gets obliterated,” he explained. “And it’s hard — it’s hard on your body; it’s hard on your everything.
“So that’s where I’m at in the journey right now. I’m getting immunotherapy. Like I said, chemo is like a nuclear bomb that kills everything, and immunotherapy is more like… it trains your immune system to go in and kill any rogue activity on a cellular level. It’s a lot like some of the HIV medicines they have nowadays, and it’s a lot like the COVID vaccine. It tells your immune system to go out and kill this. If it’s rogue and it’s in your body, it trains your immune system to go kill it.”
Tom says he is “down with the science,” stating “it’s taken me this far. And I get to live.”
Hunting also went on to say that he plans to use his experience as a cancer survivor to help others going through similar battles.
“I’m not qualified now, but I think in a couple of more months, they deem me qualified to talk to other people about this disease, and I’m gonna do it,” he said. “‘Cause I want people to know about it and I want people to get checked. Just going public with it — I don’t do social media, but what I read on the EXODUS [sites] was, like, ‘Hey, I’m having gut problems too,’ and, ‘I’m gonna go get checked out now.’ I hope people get the answers they’re looking for.”
“I’m not saying those drugs that they give you for your gut are bad. They get you by. But if you’re having what you think is a gut problem, tell ’em you wanna get scoped. ‘Cause some of those scans and some of those tests, they won’t pick up what’s going on inside there.
“Since I’m on this journey, dude, they’re fucking scanning me constantly,” Tom added. “‘Cause they wanna see how I’m reacting to what they’re doing too. So it’s all part of the science and the evolution of the science. If they can help me live — and I love my life — and I can help them develop the science to help the next batch of people who you know are gonna get this shit, that’s a win-win.”
Tom Hunting rejoined EXODUS behind the drum kit in October at the Aftershock festival in Sacramento, California.