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James Conner says doctors gave him dire prognosis without cancer treatment

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Mike Florio talks with Pittsburgh Steelers RB James Conner about how he wants to improve his game, team issues and goals as he enters his third season with the Steelers.

Steelers running back James Conner learned of his cancer diagnosis in 2015. He recently revealed that his stage two Hodgkin’s lymphoma was caught in the nick of time.

Doctors found tumors in his neck and chest, and then the news got worse.

“My heart, I got tumors growing all around it,” Conner said during a podcast hosted by Michael Seander, via SI.com.

Conner said he didn’t have long to live without treatment.

“He said you got about a week — if you didn’t get this treated, you had about a week -- at the rate it was growing,” Conner told Seander.

Conner underwent six months of chemotherapy and was declared cancer-free in May 2016. He returned to the field that season and then the Steelers drafted him in the third round in 2017.

Conner, 24, gained 1,470 yards from scrimmage and scored 13 touchdowns last season.