'DWTS' Pro Alan Bersten Reveals He Needed Neck Surgery After Finding Tumor

Dancing With the Stars pro dancer Alan Bersten was faced with a major health scare.Bersten, who [...]

By Allison Schonter

Dancing With the Stars pro dancer Alan Bersten was faced with a major health scare.

Bersten, who has been a pro dancer on the popular ABC dance competition series since 2016, revealed on Twitter that the new scar that he is sporting on his neck is the result of a surgery he had after discovering a tumor on his neck.

"A lot of people were asking what my scar on my neck is from. Well here it is! Happy to say I'm back and better than ever," Bernsten tweeted.

The dancing pro, 23, told PEOPLE that he was on tour with Dancing with the Stars: Live! three weeks ago when he began experiencing sharp stomach pains that would come and go. After getting tests done at an Urgent Care, Bersten found out his blood had a high level of calcium.

"At first [the doctors] were like, 'Oh, it's probably not a big deal. You're probably just taking some supplements,'" Bersten said. "I went back on the road the next day, and my stomach stopped hurting."

Despite feeling fine, Bersten's mother convinced him to go back to the doctor for another blood test. A week later, he discovered that the pain was a result of a tumor on one of his parathyroid glands, small glands located on the thyroid gland in the neck that produce parathyroid hormone (PTH), which helps control the amount of calcium in the blood.

"Just the word tumor is so frightening. I didn't know what malignant or benign meant until I looked it up and I was like, 'Well hopefully it's benign — God forbid I have cancer.' That is more stress than I could ever imagine. I think the scariest part was not knowing," he said.

Following his diagnosis, Bersten flew back to his hometown of Minnesota to visit an endocrinologist at the Mayo Clinic.

"They did a quick scan of everything and couldn't tell if [the tumor] was benign or malignant until they opened me up. Unfortunately the only surgery available was on April 11 so my mom quickly was like, 'You don't understand, he has to be on Dancing with the Stars. Is there anything we can do?'"

On April 12, Bersten underwent a two-hour-long surgery to remove the tumor from his neck. The tumor turned out to be benign and doctors, who said it was a "miracle" that the tumor had even been discovered, said that it is rare for this to occur again.

After only a week of recovery, Bersten is now getting ready to for the upcoming season of Dancing With the Stars: Athletes, which will see Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Johnny Damon, Mirai Nagasu, Chris Mazdzer, Josh Norman, Arike Ogunbowale, Jennie Finch, Tonya Harding, Jamie Anderson and Adam Rippon competing for the coveted Mirror Ball Trophy.

Figure skater Mirai Nagasu is paired with Bersten.

"I met my partner Mirai [Nagasu], and it was like a new life," he said. "I'm so lucky that everything went so well for me, and I got a partner like Mirai."

Hosts Tom Bergeron and Erin Andrews will also return to their roles for the special four-week event slated to premiere April 30.

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