Sam Neill has issued an “extraordinary” update about his health, four years after he was diagnosed with stage three cancer. The Jurassic Park alum, 78, was diagnosed with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a rare type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, in 2022. He’s been open about his treatment, writing in his 2023 memoir, Did I Ever Tell You This?, that he was taking a “brutal” form of chemotherapy every month.
Challenges of Treatment
During a new interview with Australia’s 7News, Neill reflected on the challenges of living with the disease for so many years. “I was on chemotherapy and the pretty miserable business but it was keeping me alive,” he said. “Then the chemo stopped working. I was at a loss and it looked like I was on the way out, which wasn’t ideal, obviously.”
Breakthrough with CAR T-Cell Therapy
However, his condition started to change after he discovered CAR T-cell therapy, which 7News said is a treatment that “genetically modifies patients’ blood cells” and is only being used in clinical trials in Australia. “I’ve had a scan just now, and there is no cancer in my body. This is an extraordinary thing,” Neill revealed.
Hematologist Miles Prince shared more details about the treatment, explaining: “[We] turbocharge those cells to then be able to now recognize the myeloma, which was not visible to the immune system before and then jump on it and kill it.”
More to follow...
