Actor Dolph Lundgren survived an 8-year cancer battle.

Katie JerkovichMay 10, 2023

Dolph Lundgren’s Secret 8-Year Battle with Cancer

“The Expendables” star Dolph Lundgren didn’t beat around the bush when he said he’s “lucky to be alive” after revealing how he almost died during his secret 8-year battle with cancer.

A Serious Diagnosis

During the 65-year-old Swedish actor’s appearance on “In Depth with Graham Bensinger,” he opened up about the “serious” health diagnosis he got in 2015 when doctors in Los Angeles “found a tumor” in his kidney and took it out, the New York Post reported.

But then they did a biopsy — and it was cancerous,” Lundgren told the host.
Then I did scans every six months, then you do it every year, then it was fine for five years.

A Devastating Diagnosis

In 2020, he was experiencing what he thought was acid reflux, but it turned out that the cancer was back and had spread. Lundgren was told he had six tumors in his kidneys and liver and that he only had “two to three years” left to live.

“At that point, it started to hit me that this is kind of something serious,” the “Rocky IV” actor said.
After a scan to prepare for surgery, Dolph said “the surgeon called me and said, ‘No, it’s grown now. It’s too big. We can’t take it out.’ It’s like the size of like a small lemon.”

A Second Opinion

However, not ready to give up all hope, he decided to seek a second opinion. The second opinion would come from Dr. Alexandra Drakaki, who noticed something unusual about the tumor and prescribed medication that had success with shrinking mutations in tumors, which is exactly what happened. Lundgren said the tumor had shrunk by 90% by the end of 2022.

“I used to say his cancer is melting away,” Drakaki laughed. “There are certain parts of his body that the cancer is responding really well. There’s some lesions that we cannot see them anymore. So that is above expectations.”