Brazilian soccer star Edson Arantes do Nascimento, known worldwide as ‘Pelé’, has stopped responding to the chemotherapy treatment he had been receiving since September last year, when he underwent surgery for bowel cancer, and is now in palliative care.
According to the sources of the Brazilian newspaper ‘Folha’, ‘Pelé’, 82, is «receiving comfort measures» to alleviate the pain and shortness of breath caused by the cancer, which has metastasized in his intestine, lung and liver.
On Friday afternoon, the Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein reported that ‘Pelé’ had been diagnosed with a respiratory infection, after being hospitalized on Tuesday for a re-evaluation of therapy.
«The response has been adequate and the patient, who remains in common room, is stable, with a general improvement of his health,» read the statement signed by doctors Fabio Nasri, geriatrician and endocrinologist, oncologist René Gansl and Miguel Cendoroglo Neto, medical director-superintendent of Einstein.
The hospital has not commented to ‘Folha’ and has limited itself to answer that it will only pronounce itself through official communiqués.
