Nick Cannon & Alyssa Scott Refused Chemotherapy So Their Son Wouldn’t Suffer

Nick Cannon has opened up about the form of brain cancer that claimed his son’s life and his final days.

In a sit-down with People, the talk show host said that he and his child’s mother, Alyssa Scott, learned of their son’s, Zen, dire health issues in August. When the baby began experiencing irregular breathing and an enlarged head, they took him to a doctor, who diagnosed him with glioma, a rare and aggressive form of brain cancer with an average survival span of 12 to 18 months.

Cannon said that he and Scott began asking what they could do for their baby boy. However, they soon learned he would likely not survive the deadly disease.

“The conversations quickly turned to, ‘How can we give him the best life for the time that he does have?’ It could be weeks. It could be months. It could be years,” the 41-year-old recounted. He says that they began having “quality-of-life conversations” and decided that they did not want to pursue chemotherapy for Zen, which meant he would be mostly confined to a hospital for the remainder of his life.

Nick Cannon previously underwent chemotherapy to help with Lupus, which he was diagnosed with in 2012. Knowing firsthand how the effects of the treatments, he said that they made the difficult decision not to put Zen through that type of suffering.

Sadly, Zen’s condition deteriorated during Thanksgiving, when the infant’s breathing worsened. He passed away on December 5th.