How a Viewer Helped Diagnose an HGTV Star With Thyroid Cancer

A few years ago, Glenda Callender, MD, was flipping across the cable channels when she happened upon an episode of HGTV’s “Flip or Flop.” Callender is the medical director of endocrine surgery for Hartford HealthCare’s Fairfield Region and an endocrine surgical oncologist at St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport.

“I’m watching this episode and I think, ‘That guy has a huge lump on his neck, he needs to have it checked out,‘” she said. “I went to contact the studio and Googled to see where the studio was. Then I saw that this was an old episode from years ago and I read all about his thyroid cancer story.”

In fact, Tarek El Moussa, star of the hit HGTV show, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2013 after a viewer, who was a registered nurse, alerted the show that a lump on El Moussa’s neck should be checked. He later said in an interview that he had been experiencing symptoms for two years, including tightness in his neck, and a constant need to clear his throat.

Click here to learn what the other symptoms of thyroid cancer are.