Dolph Lundgren has revealed for the first time that he has been battling kidney cancer since 2015.
In an appearance on the interview series In Depth with Graham Bensinger, the 65-year-old Swedish actor opened up about doctors in LA finding and removing a cancerous tumor in his kidney in 2015. Scans came up clean for the next five years but in 2020, several more tumors were discovered around the same area.
During surgery, doctors found and removed a total of six tumors, but a video clip filmed the day after found Lundgren in positive spirits. “If it dies, it dies,” he said, referencing a famous line from Rocky IV. “It will die.”
However, Lundgren wasn’t out of the woods yet. He eventually received a call that doctors had also discovered one more tumor on his liver which eventually turned out to be inoperable because it grew too big to take out.
According to his fiancée Emma Krokdal, Lundgren was later told in 2021 that he also had tumors in his lungs, stomach, spine, and kidneys. The actor added he was told that he had “two or three years” left to live, but “could tell in his [doctor’s] voice” it was probably less. “They thought it was it for sure,” he said.
Lundgren remembers being at peace after receiving the news because he had “lived like five lifetimes in one,” but still decided to seek a second opinion. Thanks to oncologist Dr. Alexandra Drakaki, he has undergone new treatments that have caused his tumors to shrink drastically.
According to Lundgren, the tumors shrunk by 20% or 30% “within three months.” By 2022, the number was up to 90%, and they’re currently in the process of taking out the remaining scar tissue.
While the cancer isn’t in remission, Dr. Drakaki believes Lundgren could have years left on his life as they keep him on the medications “as long as possible” and identify newer targets for treatment.
In a separate part of the interview, Lundgren admitted to using steroids on and off for 10 years in the ’80s and ’90s and pondered if there was “some connection between testosterone therapy and HGH therapy and cancer.”
Lundgren’s next major film to hit theaters will be Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, out December 20th of this year.
