Sports Medicine expert Dr Sudeep Satpathy, a professor at the Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) in Bhubaneswar, diagnosed the onset of level 1 cancer in Dutee's body. "I felt very scary, nervous, thinking what has happened to my life," Dutee recollected the conversation she had with the doctor her after the MRI report.

Doctor Satpathy was attached with the Indian hockey team at one point of time. Sharing her ordeal, Dutee said her problems began with a groin injury in 2021.

Asked which parts of the body could have been affected by cancer, Dutee said she can think of only groin area. "I am having testosterone hormone imbalance, so it could be from there. The groin pain was increasing slowly. Everybody was saying it's groin pain but the doctor said cancer attack can happen if it (the pain) continues."

In 2015, Dutee had won a case at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against world athletics governing body's policy on hyperandrogenism, or high natural levels of testosterone in women. She was earlier left out of the the 2014 Commonwealth Games Indian contingent at the last minute on the ground that hyperandrogenism made her ineligible to compete as a female athlete.

Dutee, who has been handed four-year ban for failing dope test, is also the first Indian athlete to come out in the open to having same-sex relationship in 2019. Asked specifically if she underwent some more tests for reconfirmation and the latest status, Dutee said, "At that time, the doctor (Satpathy) said it's level 1 cancer attack. There was a lot of pain at that time."