Dolph Lundgren, who is best known for his role as the villain in “Rocky IV,” is opening up about a tough time in his life, divulging new information about his battle with kidney cancer.
In 2015, Lundgren was diagnosed after doctors found a tumor, but it turned out he was receiving the wrong cancer treatment for years. So, that’s when he went for a second opinion and he credits that with being the reason he’s still here today.
“Getting a second opinion, that saved my life,” Lundgren told US Weekly in a new interview. “I was misdiagnosed [and] had I not sent all my charts and everything to [the] doctor at UCLA, I wouldn’t have been sitting here right now.”
At that point, the tumors had sprouted in his lungs, spine, stomach, and liver, with the initial medications he had been given failing to keep the cancer from spreading.
“It was both [disbelief and relief],” Lundgren said. “Disbelief first, and then we started the second treatment, the new treatment, [and] it was a relief that it started working quite quickly.”
And to ensure he remains health, Lundgren says he still undergoes scans every four to five months and has been “clean” for three years.
“Obviously I’m aware of the fact that psychologically that something could come back,” Lundgren said. “And look, it’s just part of life. I can’t change that.”
“I do feel that it was a blessing for me,” he added when speaking about his diagnosis. “If it had not happened, I would have pushed too hard somewhere, and some other kind of catastrophic breakdown physically, maybe because I was just doing too much.”
And by sharing his story, which is all documented in his new documentary Dolph: Unbreakable, he hopes it will help others.
“I hope there’s some inspiration there,” he told Us. “I hope people can see that there’s a way to make it through hard times if you really want to, if you have the right attitude.”
Dolph Lundgren Considered A Malpractice Suit
Lundgren admitted that after learning he had been receiving the wrong treatment, he was understandably”a little upset.”
And with that, he admitted that both he and his wife, Emma Krokdal, thought about pursuing a malpractice case and donating the proceeds to charity. However, they decided not to go through with it.
“I decided it [was] going to be a mess,” he explained. “Who needs it? I was still going through treatment, and then I realized that they weren’t doing it out of spite; they just had made a mistake. People make mistakes.”
Dolph Lundgren Kept Working Throughout His Cancer Battle
Even though he was going through a tough cancer battle, which was taking a toll on his body, he continued to work. During the worst of it, he was working on Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and Expend4bles.
And throughout it all, he kept the diagnosis to himself.
So, how was he able to do it.
Lundgren credits one person: his wife.
“[Emma] was there and helped me with the treatments, with my diet because I could only eat certain things. I had sores in my mouth and so forth,” he said. “She was just fantastic. So without her, it would have been very, very difficult, I think, to pull through.”
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‘Rocky’ Star Reveals What ‘Saved’ His Life After Cancer Diagnosis