Dolph Lundgren Reveals Cancer Misdiagnosis and Despair in New Memoir
- Action star Dolph Lundgren considered legal suicide during the depths of a multi-year cancer battle before a revised medical diagnosis reversed his prognosis, according to his memoir Fights...
- Writing in his book, Lundgren detailed how far his thoughts on ending his life progressed while undergoing intense medical treatments.
- The plans never proceeded beyond discussions between the brothers because Lundgren began treatment with Dr.
Action star Dolph Lundgren considered legal suicide
during the depths of a multi-year cancer battle before a revised medical diagnosis reversed his prognosis, according to his memoir Fights Worth Fighting: Finding Strength In Struggle.
The 68-year-old actor, widely known for playing Soviet boxer Ivan Drago in the 1985 film Rocky IV and the 2018 sequel Creed II, was originally diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2015. Tumors spread by 2020, and medical personnel informed him that he likely had only a few years left to live.
A terminal prognosis and a plan for legal suicide
Brotherly discussions and European options
Writing in his book, Lundgren detailed how far his thoughts on ending his life progressed while undergoing intense medical treatments. When I was deep into the cancer treatments and thinking about the possibility of killing myself, my brother, Johan, was going to help me, because I didn’t know what kind of condition I might be in once I made that decision,
Lundgren wrote, according to Yahoo News UK.
He added that European nations such as Switzerland permit legal suicide for terminally ill individuals, though he might have needed physical assistance to complete the process.
A critical misdiagnosis and a 2022 turning point
The plans never proceeded beyond discussions between the brothers because Lundgren began treatment with Dr. Alexandra Drakaki, according to Yahoo News UK. In 2022, Dr. Drakaki discovered that the actor actually had lung cancer rather than the previously diagnosed kidney malignancy. Following targeted treatments based on this discovery, Lundgren announced in 2024 that he is cancer-free.
Confronting the psychological toll in therapy
Reflecting on the psychological toll of his illness, Lundgren told Entertainment Weekly that he engages in survivorship therapy to cope with post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from confronting his own mortality.
In therapy, they said, ‘The one rule of life is that we all know we’re gonna die,’
Lundgren told Entertainment Weekly. Most people don’t think about it. You can get hit by a bus any day, but they told me, ‘Well, once you’ve had cancer, you’ve seen the bus. You saw the colour of the bus, and you saw the number of it.’
Sharing a message of resilience
Lundgren stated that he hopes to share his experiences to encourage others facing severe personal hardships, noting that his message applies to challenges beyond cancer diagnoses.