STRYPER's MICHAEL SWEET Offers Update On His Thyroid Cancer Battle: 'Nothing Has Spread To My Lymph Nodes'

Michael Sweet of Christian rockers STRYPER has offered an update on his battle with papillary thyroid cancer, the most common type of thyroid cancer. Michael's diagnosis came last fall, less than a month after he underwent a biopsy of a nodule in the right lobe of his thyroid.

On Friday, June 26, Sweet went live on his Facebook page to share the latest on his cancer battle, telling his followers in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I went to have my six-month checkup yesterday, and they call it active surveillance. So that's what they're doing right now with me regarding my thyroid cancer. People say, 'Don't say 'my thyroid cancer'. Don't claim it.' So I'll just say the cancer that's right there [on my left side]. And they did an ultrasound. It was quite extensive and quite lengthy, and they were obviously checking out not just that, but this side [the right side] as well, and all my lymph nodes, and just checking my whole area out. All this stuff. And it was making me a little nervous because it went on and on — much longer than usual. It's usually typically half the time. And it just kept going. She kept beeping and typing, and beeping and typing, and beeping and typing. And after a while, my mind started racing. I started thinking, 'Okay, is she seeing more? What's going on?' So after that appointment, I went up to my doctor's office and met with my doctor. I went in the room and I waited quite a while, and went in another room and waited quite a while. And once the door opened, three doctors walked in. And I gotta tell you, [my wife] Lisa and I looked at each other, and my heart started racing because that's never happened either. And thank God, the first of the three doctors, a young gentleman who was amazing, he said to me, 'First of all, everything's good.' And then, phew, I breathed a sigh of relief. But the initial walk-in of the three doctors was kind of scary, to be honest, because between that and the ultrasound, I felt, like, 'Okay, something's going on.'"

He continued: "This is what happens with all of us. This is human nature. We sometimes think the worst, when we really should be thinking the best, and it's easy to go there. No matter how prayed up you are, how positive you are, it's easy to go there. So that's where my mind was going, and thank God he said everything looks great. Nothing has spread to my lymph nodes. The cancer is surrounded by healthy tissue. It's a papillary cancer, so it's very slow-growing. It's not aggressive. It hasn't changed at all since the last time I had it checked in six months. So now they wanna check me in eight months, which, it wound up being nine months because I couldn't get in in eight months 'cause I have things going on. But so nine months they're gonna check me again and see where I'm at. And I guess, with my age and the type of cancer that it is, it's very possible, actually probable, that it's not going to grow, or at least aggressively. So I asked the doctors point-blank, 'What are the odds of me being late 70s, early 80s, and this hasn't changed?' And they said, 'Actually, very good.' So there's that possibility, a very strong possibility, and that's where I'm at. They're hesitant on surgery right now because of where it is. It's much closer to my vocal nerve. And obviously, there's that risk of vocal nerve damage. But if it came down to it, push comes to shove, if it meant me having damage in my vocal nerve and not being able to sing, I would take that any day of the week over an aggressive form of cancer spreading or anything like that. So I wanna be smart, I wanna be wise. I'm following my doctors' leads. They're the best team I think I could have. I'm in the best place possible for this, which is Boston Mass Eye And Ear, which is part of Mass General Brigham, and all that good stuff. And I'm in the best hands and best care possible."

Sweet added: "So there you go, guys. I'm just gonna follow their lead. But you know what? I appreciate the prayers, continued prayers, 'cause I'm believing in a miracle that I'm gonna go there, and they're gonna check me out, and it's gonna be gone. And I know God can do that. I've had friends that have experienced that. They've had tumors, and they've been gone, and they've disappeared, just through the power of prayer or through alternative medicine or something else that they're doing or what have you. But regardless, I'm praying for that. So if you guys could keep me in your prayers regarding that… My voice is fine. It's just gotten older. I had that checked as well recently. No surgery required for that. I have some stiffening of the vocal folds and rigidness, and I have tremors in my vocal cords, which means that I have an uncontrollable shakiness in my voice. So if you hear that lately, that explains that. And they gave me some medication to try for that a lot of entertainers actually take, and it didn't help me. And it actually made the bathroom runs worse. So without getting graphic or into details, I'll leave it at that. But you guys, I'm okay. I'm okay. As the song says, I'm all right. I'm okay. That's why I wrote that song. And I can't thank you enough. It means the world to me to be able to call on you to pray for me and to keep me in your thoughts and your prayers. It really does.

"I wanna start, actually, at least a monthly, maybe a weekly — I don't know if time will permit — but at least a monthly a prayer Facebook group live where we can come in here and we can pray for each other. I think that would be amazing. It would be phenomenal and kind of something different instead of just the same old typical Facebook stuff, which tends to be a little dramatic sometimes and a little TMZ-ish, as we all see. But I would love to have a time of prayer where we can pray for one another, 'cause we all need prayer. We all have things going on. We all have things that we want lifted up, and we're asking God to take care of. And if we pray for one another, God's gonna hear our prayers. There's gonna be more power in those prayers. And I don't know if you guys believe that. I do. And I know some of you do, maybe most of you, but I know some of you don't, and that's okay, too. But maybe you'll get to a point where you will. And I'm telling you right now, there's power in prayer. It changes lives. It can change everything, and that's why we need to pray for not only ourselves and our physical ailments, but also for our country, for our leaders, for our neighbors, for our loved ones, our family, for our friends, for all the people around us who are going through trials and tribulations and suffering because of them. It's important for us to take a moment to pray. It doesn't take a lot of time. It's very simple."

This past April, Michael told Christian Music Guys about his cancer battle: "Until I was diagnosed, I didn't really think much about my mortality or the ever after, just being honest. But then the minute you're faced with something like that, you do think about that. And it's something we all better think about, because we're all gonna face it. And what it did, in my mind, in my heart, is made me want to change my perspective and my priorities on life and try to put what's important at the top of the list and what's not important at the bottom of the list. That's easier said than done, but if you can do that, you're gonna be a lot better off by doing so. And I think that's something that — my diagnosis has helped me somewhat to do that, and I'm very happy about that. And then just losing so many people, man."

He continued: "I don't know about you guys, but it's something I've really noticed the past year is how many people have gone. Just recently, Tommy DeCarlo. I was singing with Tommy in BOSTON. He's gone. And if you had asked me a year ago if I would see that happening, I would say 'no way'. But it's reality. And not to sound morbid, but it's coming for us all. And that's why it's important to stay humble and put God first. And let God lead your path and lead your way. And wake up every morning and say a simple prayer. Go to bed every night and say a simple prayer. Start and end your days with prayer. It doesn't have to be anything long. Bring God into your day. Let him be a part of it. And if you do, you are gonna be a lot better off."

Last December, Sweet told SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk" about his papillary thyroid cancer diagnosis: "Well, I've noticed over the past 10 years some issues with my neck and my voice, a little more difficulty singing like I wanna sing. And I just wrote it off to getting older and age and whatnot. I went in and got checked and they scoped me and did an ultrasound and they discovered that I had some nodules on my thyroid on each side. And they just kept an eye on those for a number of years. And they got bigger, they got larger, and then one in particular, the one on my left side, got large enough where they wanted to biopsy it, and it came back malignant. I had surgery two years ago to have that removed. My right side, I have Hashimoto's [chronic autoimmune disease that affects the thyroid gland] and I had a nodule on that side, but it wasn't suspicious. They didn't think I'd have any issues with that. Having the other side removed and going on medication, well, obviously things took a different direction. There was some new calcification in that nodule and they did a biopsy and it came back malignant."

Sweet also talked about the importance of early cancer detection, because it drastically improves treatment effectiveness, increases survival rates, and often allows for less invasive treatment, making it easier and cheaper to cure, catching cancers before they spread. Asked if there were any symptoms that he noticed before getting diagnosed, Michael said: "There are symptoms, and I had those symptoms. I mean, probably the biggest symptom that you will notice is a hoarseness. You can probably hear it in my throat right now. I never had a hoarseness in my throat. So I went to go get checked to see if I had any polyps on my vocal folds, and I didn't. And when you have any type of prolonged hoarseness or sore throat, and then the obvious, if you have any protrusions in your neck, when you tilt your head back, any lumps, anything you see it, don't mess with it. Go. And chances are it's not gonna be anything. I'm in the very rare minimum and few that it develops into cancer. I wanna say, I believe it's four or five percent. Well, I'm that guy. And it's happened twice. So, it's one of those things. And I'm not gonna sit here and whine about it or anything. I mean, everybody has their issues — we all do — but I think the key is being proactive. Don't put off for tomorrow what you should deal with today regarding your health. Don't do it. Colonoscopy — I was scared to death to get a colonoscopy. I don't know why. I just was. I finally got one. I waited till I was 53. Thank God there were no issues at all. I'm good, but don't wait. Go deal with it."

According to the Columbia University Department Of Surgery, papillary thyroid cancer makes up about 80% of all cases of thyroid cancer. It is also the thyroid cancer with the best prognosis and most patients can be cured if treated appropriately and early enough.

In December 2023, Sweet underwent partial thyroidectomy, the surgery to remove part of his thyroid gland. Five months later, he told Steve Mascord of White Line Fever TV about the procedure: "I had nodules a nodule in each side of my thyroid, so thyroid nodules. And one of those got larger and larger. It was biopsied and it was cancer. So they removed half of my thyroid, [the left] half. [The right] half I still have. I have a nodule there still that's cystic they're gonna keep an eye on. I had to start thyroid medication. But I had the surgery back in December — December 15th [of 2023]."

Regarding how the operation affected his singing voice, Sweet said at the time: "I could feel the pressure of the room and the space in that area with those nodules getting larger. I could feel it. And it's been like that for a few years. I've had 'em for a while, but I had to have it removed because of the cancer, and I dealt with it right away. But having the side of that thyroid removed, they had to cut through some muscles. So I can really feel it — it just feels different, it's the only way I can describe it. My vocal nerve was not damaged. I went to the best doctor in Boston who specializes in that, specifically not damaging the vocal nerve. He uses a very particular monitoring system, and he kind of wrote the book on that. And no damage to my vocal nerve — thank God. But still, it feels weird when I sing. It feels like someone kind of has their hand on my throat. It's the only way I can describe it."

STRYPER released its long-awaited Christmas album, "The Greatest Gift Of All", in November 2025 via Frontiers Music Srl.

STRYPER's latest all-original studio album, "When We Were Kings", came out in September 2024.

Sweet's new album, "The Master Plan", his most personal and spiritually resonant solo LP yet, was made available on April 3, 2026 via Frontiers Music Srl.