“Jurassic Park” star Sam Neill has said he is cancer-free after almost five years of battling stage-three blood cancer.
“I’ve been living with a particular type of lymphoma for about five years and I was on chemotherapy and the pretty miserable business but it was keeping me alive,” Neill, who is best known for playing Alan Grant in the “Jurassic Park” franchise, told Australian network 7News of his treatment.
At one point, after the chemotherapy stopped working, “I was at a loss and it looked like I was on the way out, which wasn’t ideal obviously,” he continued.
After undergoing a cutting edge treatment, which genetically modifies blood cells, Neill said he is now free of cancer. “I’ve just had a scan just now and there is no cancer in my body, that’s an extraordinary thing,” he said. “I’m very, very excited that this can happen.”
The actor is even planning to return to the big screen, saying: “It’s time I did another movie.”
Neill is now advocating for the treatment, CAR T-cell therapy, to be rolled out across his native Australia. It is currently only being used in clinical trials there.
The actor first went public with his diagnosis in 2023 after being diagnosed with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma the previous year during publicity for “Jurassic World Dominion” after initially experiencing swollen glands. Neill had reprised his role as Grant in the 2022 movie alongside his original co-stars Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum as well as relative newcomers to the franchise Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard.
“I’m not afraid to die, but it would annoy me,” Neill said at the time. “Because I’d really like another decade or two, you know? We’ve built all these lovely terraces, we’ve got these olive trees and cypresses. I want to be around to see it all mature. And I’ve got my lovely little grandchildren. I want to see them get big. But as for the dying? I couldn’t care less.”
variety.com
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