Dolph Lundgren awaits news about his serious illness

He's a muscled Swede of almost two meters (6'5) and 120 kilos (264lb) with a presence as intimidating as it is imposing. Yet, Dolph Lundgren is said to be one of the gentlest and nicest guys in Hollywood.

Dolph Lundgren has been a star in the industry for close to four decades, with his unforgettable role as Ivan Drago in 'Rocky IV' (image) as one of the highlights. There, and in other films, he showed off his strength, punch, and musculature.

Despite his almost superhuman strength, the Swedish actor has recently revealed that in 2015 he was diagnosed with a serious illness. The star has been treated for cancer ever since.

It was during a sincere interview, 'In Depth With Graham Bensinger' (photo), where Dolph Lundgren told the secret that he had kept hidden for eight years.

As the actor revealed, he had been diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in his kidney. The cancer was removed but a series of periodic reviews began from there.

"I did scans every six months, then you do it every year, and it was fine, you know, for five years," the actor recalls.

But in 2020, the Swedish actor began to experience acid reflux without knowing exactly what it was, so he went straight to the doctor.

"I did an MRI and they found there were a few more tumors around the area," he recalls.

There were a total of six tumors in Dolph Lundgren's body. They were able to remove five, but the sixth was impossible to treat because it had grown too much. The doctors then proceeded to apply systemic therapy.

Image: Creed II

But time passed and the actor's situation worsened. In the fall of 2021, more tumors were discovered in Dolph Lundgren's body. It happened right after the filming of 'Expend4bles' and 'Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom'.

"We realized it was a lot worse than we thought. [The doctor] kind of started talking about all these different tumors, like, in the lung and the stomach and the spine, outside the kidneys," the actor said, according to Variety.

As the actor recalled, the doctor "started saying these things like, ‘You should probably take a break and spend more time with your family,’ and so forth."

Faced with such a scenario, Dolph Lundgren bluntly asked how long he had left to live. "I think he said two or three years, but I could tell in his voice that he probably thought it was less."

Instead of just letting it be, the actor decided to seek a second opinion in London. There, he was told that his kidney cancer had mutated into lung cancer.

Thanks to this insight into his illness, the Swedish actor could make the decision to treat it as lung cancer instead of kidney cancer. And, as he points out to Graham Besinger, this decision saved his life.

Image: Creed II

"If I had gone on the other treatment, I’d have had about three to four months left," he said. But after they treated the illness as lung cancer, the tumors shrunk by 20% in just over three months.

The treatment was maintained throughout 2022, Lundgren said, and the results were spectacular. All his tumors had been reduced by 90%.

Obviously, to this day, the situation is still complicated. Yet, there is hope that the treatment will end leaving Dolph Lundgren's muscular body completely clean.

"Finally things had shrunk to about 90%. Now I’m in the process of taking out the remaining scar tissue in those tumors…" the actor said.

"The prognosis is that, hopefully, when they take these out, there’s no cancer activity and the medication that I’m taking is gonna suppress everything else," the Swede continued hopefully.

While waiting to see the evolution, it is possible that after eight years of check-ups, treatments, and interventions, Dolph Lundgren can completely cleanse his body of carcinogenic substances. It could be big and very good news for the actor.