🔺 Patti Scialfa reveals cancer battle

🔺 Bruce Springsteen’s wife and bandmate has myeloma

🔺 First diagnosed in 2018, leading to band pullback


Fans across New Jersey and beyond have been sharing well-wishes for Bruce Springsteen’s wife and bandmate, Patti Scialfa, after she revealed a years-long battle with rare cancer.

Scialfa has been living with multiple myeloma since her diagnosis in 2018, she revealed in the new documentary “Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.”

The intimate look at Springsteen and the E Street Band debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday.

The documentary will hit streaming service, Disney Plus, on Oct. 25.

Since the diagnosis, Scialfa has made fewer appearances on stage with Springsteen and the band, starting with her husband’s record-breaking run on Broadway, Rolling Stone reported.

Bruce Springsteen and his wife Patti Scialfa
File 2017: Bruce Springsteen and his wife Patti Scialfa (Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
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Scialfa had been among acts slated for the Sea Hear Now festival at the Jersey Shore that had been delayed a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She withdrew from the third annual festival headlined by Pearl Jam before it happened in Asbury Park in September 2021.

The health diagnosis was made public days before Springsteen and the E Street Band are slated to headline this year's Sea Hear Now festival Sunday night.

“Every once in a while, I come to a show or two and I can sing a few songs on stage, and that’s been a treat,” Scialfa says in the documentary, as quoted by Rolling Stone.

In April, Scialfa joined Springsteen for a tender live version of "Tougher Than The Rest" in Los Angeles at The Forum, as shared to YouTube by fan account, NoRetNoSurrender.

Bruce Springsteen daughter magazine cover, Harper's Bazaar music icon families
A full Springsteen family portrait at the 2018 Tony Awards (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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Springsteen and Scialfa have three adult children: Evan, Jessica and Sam Springsteen.

E Street Nation, a fan group on Facebook, were among online outpours of prayers and well wishes as the news broke on Monday.

Stevie Van Zandt, Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa perform onstage at Madison Square Garden
2016: Stevie Van Zandt, Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa at Madison Square Garden ( Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)
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Patients with multiple myeloma deal with cancerous plasma cells that build up in bone marrow, according to Rutgers Cancer Institute.

Symptoms of myeloma can include bone and back pain as a result of weakening bones, anemia, kidney injury.

The cancer also means patients are considered high-risk for infections, due to loss of antibody diversity.

Bone marrow or stem cell transplants have been among the most successful treatments for patients with myeloma, according to RWJ Barnabas Health, though there currently is no permanent cure.

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