Singer Choi Ye-na opens up about childhood cancer: 'I danced and acted cute even more'

Singer Choi Ye-na has revealed that battling childhood cancer brought her closer to her older brother, actor Choi Sung-min.

On Monday, Choi appeared on the YouTube channel "Jjanhan Hyung Shin Dong-yeop" alongside singers Gangnam and Roy Kim. When Gangnam remarked that she and her brother seemed unusually close, and host Shin Dong-yeop expressed surprise — saying he had rarely seen a brother and sister so tight — Choi opened up about her childhood illness.

"Because I was sick when I was little, my brother and I barely spent any time together — I was always at the hospital, so we were apart," she said. "So when I recovered and came home, the idea that I was someone he had to protect had been ingrained in him from a young age."

"I had lymphoma as a child," she continued. "So my brother grew up treating me like his own baby, the way a father or mother would." She laughed, adding, "Now that the baby earns the most money, I've gone from being the baby to being the older sister."

When Shin asked when she first realized how hard her illness had been on her parents, Choi said, "I instinctively knew from when I was a baby."

"The image I have of my mom and dad is of them constantly crying and struggling," she said. "Seeing that, I didn't want them to feel that way, so I actually danced and acted cute even more. I kept thinking about what I could do to make my parents happy."

Choi also reflected on watching her brother navigate the entertainment industry. "On screen he was an idol — shining and cool — but in real life he was struggling so much and crying. Seeing that made me think, 'This really isn't easy. This is reality,'" she said. "And that made me think, 'I really have to make it.'"

"From the moment I joined the company, it was competition — starting with getting onto an audition program," she added. "I wanted it so desperately and gave it everything I had, and before I knew it, I was in IZ*ONE."

Earlier, Choi had also spoken about nearly losing her life to lymphoma at around age four on MBC's "Jeonjijeojeok Chamgyeon Sijeom" last month.

Lymphoma is the third most common form of childhood cancer. According to the National Cancer Information Center, it accounts for about 10 percent of malignant tumors in children 14 and under, behind only leukemia and brain tumors. Slightly more than 1,000 children in that age group are newly diagnosed with childhood cancer in South Korea each year.

According to the National Cancer Center, the five-year survival rate for childhood and adolescent cancers has recently been around 85 percent.

Born in 1999, Choi made her debut as a member of IZ*ONE after appearing on Mnet's "Produce 48" in 2018. After the group disbanded in 2021, she launched her solo career the following year with her first mini-album "SMiLEY."