Dolph Lundgren reveals lung cancer battle and how a second opinion prolonged his life
Dolph Lundgren, known for “Rocky IV” and “The Expendables,” revealed he is facing his toughest fight yet: cancer.
In an interview with “In Depth With Graham Bensinger” posted Wednesday, the Swedish actor revealed that he has been living with lung cancer since 2015. He opened up about his experience, including the second opinion that drastically increased his life expectancy.
“I thought it was it for sure,” Lundgren told Bensinger of his prognosis after his diagnosis.
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Lundgren, 65, said his cancer battle started in Los Angeles where doctors extracted a tumor from his kidney and determined that it was cancerous. After the surgery, he underwent regular scans every six months, and “it was fine for five years.”
Then, in 2020, when Lundgren was back in Sweden, doctors performed an MRI and found the actor had “a few more tumors,” including one in his liver.
“At that point, it started to hit me that this is kind of something serious,” he told Bensinger.
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Lundgren recalled that doctors could not surgically extract the tumor from his liver, which was the size of “a small lemon.” As a result, he underwent “systemic therapy” that left him with severe side effects including diarrhea, a loss of appetite and weight loss.
“That wasn’t very nice for myself or for my poor fiancée (Emma Krokdal) to suffer through that,” he said.
Amid the treatments, Lundgren traveled to London, where he was set to film “The Expendables 4” and the “Aquaman” sequel. After he did not hear back from his Los Angeles doctors, Lundgren said he sought input from another medical expert, who told him he had only years to live.
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“I could tell in his voice that he probably thought it was less,” he recalled.
“I’ve lived like five lifetimes in one already. With everything I’ve done, and you know. So it wasn’t like I was bitter about it. It was just like... [You] feel sorry for my kids and my fiancée, the people around you.”
Lundgren, “depressed” by the news, reached out to another expert — this time Dr. Alexandra Drakaki, an oncologist for UCLA Health. She told Bensinger that Lundgren was living with a “mutation that is actually common in lung cancer.” As a result, Lundgren started different treatments specific to lung cancer.
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“If I had gone on the other treatment, I had about three to four months left,” he continued. “I couldn’t believe that it would be that radical of a difference.”
Lundgren told Bensinger that he is in remission and that he expects the medication to “suppress everything else.”
He said that he’s gained an appreciation for each day he lives and that he believes the good news is some sort of karma.
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“I’ve always tried to be nice to everybody and meet fans, anybody, and it maybe came back to me somehow now when I needed it the most,” he said. “I think when you put love out there, you get it back.”
Lundgren’s most recent movie credits include “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” “Section 8” and “The Best Man.”
The “In Depth With Graham Bensinger” interview with Lundgren will air on NBC at 4 p.m. Pacific on Saturday. The episode will re-air Sunday at midnight.
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