Dolph Lundgren: Finally cancer-free after nine years

Dolph Lundgren (67) has every reason to be hugely relieved: the Swedish actor has won his years-long battle against cancer. “Here I am at UCLA, I’m about to get rid of the last tumor,” he reported from his hospital bed in the famous clinic at the University of California in Los Angeles. “Since there are no more cancer cells in my body, I will probably be cancer-free.”

The road to this moment was a long and arduous one for the action star. It was only through the illness that he learned to live in the moment and enjoy every moment of it. He was first diagnosed with lung cancer in 2015, which Lundgren did not make public until 2023. After initially successful treatment, the big shock followed in 2020: the cancer was back – and the prognosis was devastating.

“The surgeon called me and said the tumor had grown, it had gotten too big, about the size of a small lemon,” Lundgren recalled. When he asked about his life expectancy, the doctor predicted only two to three years. “But I could hear in his voice that he thought it was less. I was sure that was it.”

The difficult time didn’t just affect the actor. His daughter Ida Lundgren (28) also remembered a particularly difficult conversation with her father about the possibility of his death in a conversation with moderator Besinger: “That was a terrible conversation, it was a hard time.” And his wife Emma Krokdal (28) also experienced moments of despair as his condition rapidly deteriorated: “His mouth became sore, his hands became sore and he could no longer eat. He lost weight.”

The actor himself today blames his previous steroid consumption for the illness. “I tried steroids in the ’80s and ’90s,” he admitted. “I don’t know if it has anything to do with the cancer, but of course it occurred to me that there might be a connection.” For about ten years he took the substances “sometimes more, sometimes less” – depending on which film he was making.

The turning point came with a second opinion from the doctor Dr. Alexandra Drakaki. After changing the treatment, the tumors began to shrink within three months – by twenty to thirty percent. Today, the star, who rose to fame in films like “Rocky IV” and “The Expendables,” reflects gratefully on his road to recovery: “It was a tough journey that really taught me to live in the moment and enjoy every moment of life .”