Nick Cannon Shares Why He Didn't Want Son To Undergo Chemotherapy Before Death

Nick Cannon ’s own experiences with chemotherapy helped him make a very difficult decision.

Cannon’s 5-month-old son Zen died in December 2021  from brain cancer. The comedian and TV personality shared on an episode of “The Checkup with Dr. David Agus” on Paramount+ that he and Zen’s mom, model Alyssa Scott, decided to forgo chemotherapy treatments for their baby. 

Cannon told Angus that he asked doctors if chemotherapy would extend Zen’s life or lessen his suffering. Zen, who began to show symptoms at 2 months old, had already undergone multiple procedures. 

Zen’s doctors said it wouldn’t help much due to the size and placement of the baby’s tumor, which was near the center of his brain, Cannon said. 

Cannon, who underwent a form of chemotherapy when he was diagnosed with lupus  in 2012, couldn’t help but wonder how the treatment would affect a baby.

“I knew how as a full grown man, that process was my hair was falling out,” he said on the show. “I wouldn’t even call it pain it just literally felt like it sucked everything out of you.” 

“I couldn’t imagine that on a newborn and what that would do,” Cannon continued. 

He also explained that opting for the treatment also meant that Zen would “live in the hospital.” 

“He wouldn’t be able to ever go home,” Cannon said. “I was like, ‘We don’t have a lot of time with him. I want him to be able to see the beach.’” 

Ultimately, the parents “went to the space of ‘well, we want to enjoy him and want him to be able to enjoy,’” Cannon said.

Cannon explained on the “Nick Cannon Show” last year that he was surprised when his son was first diagnosed and thought he was bringing Zen into the doctor for a routine checkup about a cough.

“I always noticed he had a cough and so I wanted to check it out,” Cannon said last year. “He had this interesting breathing and by the time he was 2 months, I noticed he had this nice-sized head too — a Cannon head. We didn’t think anything of it. But I wanted to take him to the doctor for his sinus and breathing. We thought it would be routine.”

That was when doctors discovered Zen had fluid building in his head and a malignant tumor.

Cannon described Zen on his show as “the most loving.”

“We called him Z Chilling,” he said last year. “He was always smiling. He had the most beautiful spirit.”