Jurassic Park star Sam Neill revealed he is cancer-free after taking part in an Australian clinical trial for his stage 3 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 said in an interview with Australia’s 7News on Sunday, April 26.
Neill, 78, first shared his cancer diagnosis in his 2023 memoir, Did I Ever Tell You This?, writing that he was undergoing chemotherapy to treat his cancer.
The actor told 7News that he took part in a clinical trial for CAR T-cell therapy, which genetically modifies blood cells, after his “chemo stopped working.”
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“I was at a loss and it looked like I was on the way out, which wasn’t ideal, obviously,” said Neill, who is advocating for CAR-T cell therapy to be rolled out to blood cancer patients across Australia.
“I’ve just had a scan just now and there is no cancer in my body, that’s an extraordinary thing,” added the Peaky Blinders alum.
The New Zealand-born actor previously opened up about being diagnosed with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma in early 2023.
He told the Guardian in March that year that he experienced swollen glands while promoting 2022’s Jurassic World Dominion, which led to his diagnosis.
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“I can’t pretend that the last year hasn’t had its dark moments,” he told the outlet. “But those dark moments throw the light into sharp relief, you know, and have made me grateful for every day and immensely grateful for all my friends. Just pleased to be alive.”
In the same interview, Neill shared how he turned to writing his memoir as a way to keep busy while undergoing treatment.
“I found myself with nothing to do,” he said. “And I’m used to working. I love working. I love going to work. I love being with people every day and enjoying human company and friendship and all these things. And suddenly I was deprived of that. And I thought, ‘What am I going to do?’”
“I never had any intention to write a book,” he continued. “But as I went on and kept writing, I realised it was actually sort of giving me a reason to live and I would go to bed thinking, ‘I’ll write about that tomorrow … that will entertain me.’ And so it was a lifesaver really, because I couldn’t have gone through that with nothing to do, you know.”
In his interview with 7News, Neill teased returning to his first love — acting — now that he has been given the all-clear.
“It’s time I did another movie,” he said.
