Bruce Springsteen announced that his wife Patti Scialfa, 72, has been living with multiple myeloma for over eight years but is now thankfully in remission.
Springsteen appeared virtually at an event for the Pan-Mass Challenge on Friday night, a yearly bike ride that raises funds for cancer research and treatment at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
His wife, Patti Scialfa, is being treated at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute for multiple myeloma.
“However, like millions of families facing cancer, we’ve learned what every patient learns, [that] hope has a face,” Springsteen said. “It’s our physician who refuses to stop searching and caring, [and] it’s our nurse who sits beside us when we’re scared and always makes our journey just a little bit easier.”
Springsteen added that his wife’s journey has taught him that “medical research isn’t an idea.” “It isn’t politics,” he said. “It isn’t a line in a budget. It’s the reason families find hope when hope seems hardest to find.”
“When we lose sight of that, we lose sight of one another, and that’s too high a price for anyone to pay. That’s always been the best of America to Patti and I. Now, more than ever, the world needs more everyday heroes like the folks who make up the PMC.”
“We’re a little late, but here we are and it’s a pleasure to be with you,” Springsteen noted in the video.
Springsteen said he would perform “one of my best riding songs” before launching into an acoustic version of “Born to Run.”
“You know, I’ve had the privilege of getting to know my friend, Dr. Paul Richardson, throughout this journey and seeing firsthand the work that’s happening at Dana-Farber. Every single day, he and his incredible team provide hope and amazing care to all their patients and families, including Patty and I, as well as helping to provide cutting edge” treatment.
Patti Scialfa, 71, Bruce Springsteen’s wife and bandmate, was diagnosed in 2018 with a rare blood cancer called multiple myeloma.
“Touring has become a challenge for me. In 2018, well, Bruce and I were doing a play on Broadway. I was diagnosed with early-stage multiple myeloma.” She explained further, “This affects my immune system, so I have to be careful what I choose to do and where I choose to go.”
In the viral moment that shocked fans in September 2024,
Patti Scialfa first spoke of her multiple myeloma diagnosis in the Springsteen documentary titled “Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band,” which was released in October 2024.
Scialfa explained that she received her diagnosis while she and Springsteen were on the rock singer’s Broadway run in 2018.
Scialfa did not attend the film’s premiere and has been mostly absent from the E Street Band’s current world tour.
“This affects my immune system, so I have to be careful what I choose to do and where I choose to go,” Scialfa, 71, says in the film. “Every once in a while, I come to a show or two, and I can sing a few songs onstage, and that’s been a treat.”
Fans learned of her health battle in the documentary, where she’s seen addressing her health struggle, and according to People, she said in the documentary, “I’ve been performing with this band for 40 years. With those first performances, it felt so good to be back onstage.”
Scialfa and Springsteen also opened up about their marriage earlier this year.
“I always tried not to be a wife on stage. I really did,” Scialfa, 71, said during a Wednesday, October 23, appearance on SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show.
“I didn’t wanna bring that on stage and Bruce always has this great saying, ‘It’s like on stage it’s, you know, but as soon as I get my foot off the stage, it’s over baby.'”
While speaking to radio host Howard Stern, Springsteen admitted that his wife runs the show as soon as a concert ends. “I’m only boss for three hours. Then I surrender the title, happily,” he quipped, referring to his famed “The Boss” nickname.
Sharing a sweet story about when she was putting together her “Rumble Doll record,” she told Stern, “We were living in L.A. We had just woken up and were talking about, you know, working, and he goes, ‘You know what you need on your record? You need one song where you really brag about yourself. Like, really just throw it out there and be really sexy and brag.’ She added, “It’s not quite my thing, right? So I said, ‘No, no, no, no. I’m so not doing that, Bruce.’ And he goes, ‘Yeah, yeah, you gotta do it.’ And he started singing ‘Red Headed Woman.'”
She has been a member of the E Street Band since 1984 and married Springsteen in 1991. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014.
Springsteen said “We caught it early, which was important.”
“It’s a tough disease. It’s very fatiguing,” added the “Born to Run” musician, before explaining why the pair waited to publicly reveal Scialfa’s diagnosis: “She hadn’t played in the band in a long time, and people I don’t think knew why.”
Springsteen has a personal reason to get behind the PMC, which is the largest athletic fundraiser in the world and has raised over $1 billion for Dana-Farber. His wife, E Street Band member Patti Scialfa, has been treated in Boston since being diagnosed with multiple myeloma eight years ago.