Nick Cannon said that he andAlyssa Scott decided to not treat their son Zen withchemotherapy .- Cannon announced Zen's
death earlier in December, saying he died from abrain tumor .
Nick Cannon said that he and Alyssa Scott decided to not treat their son Zen, who died of a brain tumor at five months old, with chemotherapy because they wanted to focus on his happiness.
Speaking with People, Cannon explained the decision to not treat Zen with chemotherapy, which was one of the options on the table for the baby's treatment.
"We were having quality-of-life conversations. We could have had that existence where he would've had to live in the hospital, hooked up to machines, for the rest of the time," Cannon told People. "From someone who's had to deal with chemotherapy before, I know that pain."
Cannon announced on a live episode of his talk show earlier in December that his youngest child, 5-month-old Zen, had died of a brain tumor.
People later reported that Zen had been diagnosed at two months old with a high-grade glioma, a rare, fast-growing tumor found in the brain and spinal cord, according to the Cincinnati Children's Hospital. Cannon said on his talk show that doctors initially placed a shunt in Zen's head to drain fluid that had built up.
Cannon told People that he and Scott discussed other treatment options, including chemotherapy, with doctors. Ultimately, he said, they chose to focus on keeping Zen "as happy as he could possibly be" and not continue with any invasive procedures.
Cannon himself announced in 2012 that he had been diagnosed with lupus, an autoimmune disease that can lead to organ damage and inflammation. Chemotherapy was part of his treatment, People reported.
"To see that happen to a 2-month-old, I didn't want that," Cannon told People. "I didn't want him to suffer."