Bruce Springsteen has shared the most encouraging update yet about his wife and E Street Band member Patti Scialfa’s eight-year experience with blood cancer.
The singer revealed that Scialfa, 73, is now in remission from multiple myeloma, which she was diagnosed with in 2018 while the couple was performing Springsteen on Broadway.
Springsteen, 76, announced the news in a prerecorded message supporting the 2026 Pan-Mass Challenge, an annual cycling fundraiser benefiting cancer research and treatment at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Scialfa kept her diagnosis private for six years before discussing it in the 2024 documentary Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, where she explained why she had stepped back from full-time touring.
Springsteen Said Patti Is ‘Thankfully’ in Remission
Here is @springsteen beautiful speech about Patti’s cancer battle and an acoustic performance of “Born to Run” fundraising for last Saturday’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston’s Pan-Mass Challenge. Glad to know Patti is doing well and is in remission. 🙏🏼 #springsteen pic.twitter.com/kA6BOujpqQ
— Spring-Nuts (@SpringNuts_) August 3, 2026
Springsteen opened his message by praising the community that has supported the Pan-Mass Challenge since 1980. He said the participants had demonstrated that ordinary people could make an extraordinary difference and credited their fundraising with helping save countless lives.
Springsteen then delivered the personal update about his wife. “As you know, Patti’s been living with her multiple myeloma for over eight years, but now, thankfully, she is in remission,” he said. According to the National Cancer Institute, remission means that the signs and symptoms of cancer have decreased or disappeared, but it does not necessarily mean that the cancer has been cured.
He Thanked the People Who Supported Her Treatment
Springsteen said his family had learned that hope often arrives through the medical professionals who continue searching for better treatments and remain beside patients during frightening moments. “Hope has a face,” he said. “It’s our physician who refuses to stop searching and caring, and it’s our nurse who sits beside us when we’re scared.”
He emphasized that medical research has direct consequences for patients and their families rather than existing only as an abstract policy or budget issue. “Medical research isn’t an idea. It isn’t politics. It isn’t a line in a budget,” he said, according to Page Six.
Springsteen thanked the event’s riders, volunteers, physicians, nurses and researchers on behalf of himself and Scialfa before performing an acoustic version of “Born to Run.” The 2026 Pan-Mass Challenge took place August 1 and 2. The organization has raised more than $1 billion for Dana-Farber since its creation.
Scialfa Revealed Her Diagnosis in ‘Road Diary’
Scialfa publicly disclosed her illness in Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2024. She explained that she had been diagnosed with early-stage multiple myeloma in 2018 and that the disease affected her immune system.
Multiple myeloma is a cancer that begins in plasma cells, a type of white blood cell found in bone marrow. “Touring has become a challenge for me,” Scialfa said in the documentary. She explained that she had to be careful about where she went and which activities she chose because of the effect on her immune system.
Scialfa could still attend selected concerts and perform several songs, but joining the E Street Band for an entire tour was no longer practical. “Every once in a while, I come to a show or two and I can sing a few songs onstage, and that’s been a treat,” she said. “That’s the new normal for me right now, and I’m okay with that.”
The Diagnosis Explained Her Reduced Touring Schedule
Before revealing her illness, Scialfa had attributed some of her absence from E Street Band concerts to completing a fourth solo album and helping care for her granddaughter Lily. Lily was born to Springsteen and Scialfa’s son Sam and his wife, Alex, in 2022.
She continued joining Springsteen for occasional performances, often appearing during intimate duets such as “Tougher Than the Rest,” “Fire” and “Brilliant Disguise.” Scialfa remains an official member of the E Street Band. Springsteen’s website also says that she has finished her fourth solo album and plans to release it.
The Couple Recently Celebrated 35 Years of Marriage
Springsteen and Scialfa marked their 35th wedding anniversary on June 8, less than two months before he announced her remission. The pair first met at The Stone Pony in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Scialfa joined the E Street Band in 1984 for the Born in the U.S.A. tour, and they married in 1991. They share three adult children: Evan, Jessica and Sam.
Springsteen concluded his Pan-Mass Challenge message by connecting the patients, caregivers and researchers supporting Scialfa with the resilient characters he has spent his career writing about. “I’ve spent my life writing songs about the people who keep believing when life gives them every reason not to,” he said. “Now, more than ever, the world needs more everyday heroes like the folks who make up the PMC.