Ethan Miller/Getty Images for Tabu Ultra LoungeHe outlasted the Big C the first time around, but it looks like Ethan Zohn is about to go another round.
The Survivor: Africa champ has announced that after 20 months in remission from Hodgkin's lymphoma, his cancer has returned.
"I have taken all the fear instilled by this disease & transformed it into something fear itself should be afraid of," Zohn, 37, tweeted before linking to an interview he gave People in its latest issue.
The reality star said he first learned about the recurrence Sept. 14 when doctors informed him they had detected new cancer cells in his chest.
"I don't want fear or cancer to define me, but it's always in the back of your mind," he commented to the magazine.
Luckily, he noted the cancer so far has not metastasized.
"It's localized in my lung area," the former Boran tribesman added. "But it's good that it's not all over my body."
His girlfriend, fellow Survivor winner Jenna Morasca, has also been supportive.
"She's taking it like the rock star that she is," Ethan said. "We're both filled with fear and anger and anxiety and gratitude and frustration. But there's so much love there. It's this whole spectrum of emotions."
According to the magazine, Zohn has begun 12 weeks of chemotherapy and plans to undergo a stem-cell transplant from one of his brothers, though he acknowledges his physicians refuse to tell him which one because "they didn't want me treating one differently than the other."
But don't think the diagnosis has slowed this cancer survivor down. Zohn still plans to run in the New York City Marathon this Saturday for the second year in a row after getting the OK from doctors.
"The doctors think I'm crazy but they gave me the OK," he said, adding that despite the disease, "I want people to know that you can still live a fulfilled life and move forward."
Money raised from Ethan's run will go toward his Grassroots Soccer organization, which uses the sport to engage young people in HIV/AIDS education and prevention.