According to Dolph Lundgren, he has been battling cancer secretly for years. Fans may be most familiar with Lundgren from his role as the Soviet-Russian boxer Ivan Drago in the Rocky film series.
The Swedish actor revealed yesterday that his illness is now fatal as he opened up about his diagnosis.
He-Man (1987), The Punisher (1989), and The Expendables (2010) star Dolph Lundgren disclosed that a kidney tumor was originally discovered in his body eight years ago. Scan results during the years that followed its successful removal were “fine,” but in 2020, an MRI revealed “more tumors,” which caused his condition to return.
On In Depth With Graham Bensinger, Lundgren stated, “[There was a] tumor in my kidney that they took out in 2015 […] but then they did a biopsy, and it was cancerous.”
After receiving years of clear scans, physicians discovered the second tumor growing in Lundgren’s liver in 2020. At that point, according to Lundgren, he started to understand the severity of his condition.
The actor was informed that the tumor had become too large for surgery, despite earlier speculation that it might be removed as the first one had. In addition, before a lethal cancer was finally determined, the illness had already spread to Lundgren’s lungs, spine, liver, and stomach.
So I said, “How long do you think I have left?” the 65-year-old man recalled.
“I believe he stated two or three years, but I could tell from his voice that he likely believed it to be less.”
More than anything else, Lundgren said, he “felt sorry” for his family, which included his fiance Emma Krokdal and his two daughters, Ida Lundgren and Greta Lundgren.
“[I decided] I might as well get a second opinion,” he continued.
“Things started to get smaller after three months. We are now removing the remaining scar tissue from the tumors.”
The outlook is that hopefully there won’t be any cancer activity when they remove them, and the medicine I’m taking will inhibit everything else, the actor continued.
The oncologist for Lundgren added, “I hope it’s years. It hasn’t been months, I think. My goal is to try to maintain him on this medication as long as I can to find novel therapeutic targets as things change within his body.
Lundgren, who played the antagonist in the 1985 film Rocky IV, acknowledges using steroids in the past and wonders whether this could be connected to his cancer.
He remarked, ” I was unsure if it was related to the cancer. Of course, the thought crossed my mind that it might be connected. I thought about it briefly.”
Let’s wish Dolph Lundgren the best of luck going forward as he battles cancer.
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