Life After Cancer ‘Gets Better With Age’ for ‘Jurassic Park’ Star Sam Neil, 76, 2-Years Into Remission from Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

The actor pointed out the contrast between when his cancer journey began and where it is today.

“What was slightly annoying was that the story was sort of ‘cancer, cancer, cancer,’ and the other half of the story is ‘remission, remission, and remission,’ and I’m absolutely fine,” Neill told SkyNews.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) defines remission as a “decrease in or disappearance of signs and symptoms of cancer.” In general, patients who if patients remain in remission for at least 5 years are considered to have “no signs of cancer” or “no evidence of disease.” Physicians oftentimes avoid saying someone is “cured” of cancer because some cancer cells can remain in the body and could return years down the road (also called recurrence).

Neill’s Cancer Journey

Neill’s cancer journey began last year when he felt lumps in his neck. His doctor initially told him it was because of a COVID-19 infection, but as his symptoms persisted, he pushed for more solid answers.

“I said, these lumps don’t seem to be going down, and I don’t know why,” Neill said in his memoir “Did I Ever Tell You This.”

Neill was in the middle of promoting “Jurassic World: Dominion” when his neck swelled. People magazine reported that the actor didn’t give his neck much thought until photos from the event showed that it appeared “lumpy.”

Neill talked with his doctor, who attributed the symptoms to another condition.

“He assured me that my lumpy glands were due to undetected COVID, and they’d be hanging around for a little while. I went back a week later when they were even bigger. This time, he sent me to the hospital for some tests,” Neill told People Magazine.

An eventual PET scan led to his angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma (AITL) diagnosis, which is a rare and aggressive form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Understanding Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

“Non-Hodgkin lymphoma is a big category,” Dr. Julie Vose, chief of hematology/oncology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, previously told SurvivorNet.

All non-Hodgkin lymphomas begin in white blood cells known as lymphocytes, which are part of your body’s immune system. From there, doctors separate these cancers into types depending on the specific kind of lymphocytes they grow from B cells or T cells.

Knowing which one of these you have can help steer you to the most appropriate treatment for you.

One way doctors divide up these cancers is based on how fast they’re likely to grow and spread. “The two main classifications I think of in terms of non-Hodgkin lymphoma are lymphomas that are more indolent and those that are more aggressive because those are treated very differently,” Dr. Jennifer Crombie, medical oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, tells SurvivorNet.

Most non-Hodgkin lymphomas, about 85%, affect B-cells. These cells produce antibodies and proteins that react to foreign substances like viruses or bacteria in your body. The antibodies attach to another protein on the surface of the invading cells, called an antigen, to target and destroy them.

“Within a few days, I was lying on a hospital bed having all kinds of chemicals draining into my system,” Neill said as he coped with his cancer diagnosis, an emotional moment many cancer warriors experience before they bravely battle the disease.

Actor Sam Neill, a father of two, started chemotherapy treatment, but once the chemo he was on stopped being effective, he switched to a different chemotherapy drug. Although Neill did not reveal which chemo drug he was taking, side effects such as hair loss took him aback.

“After my first chemo, it took only a little over two weeks for the hair to disappear completely from the top of my head,” Neill said.

He also lost facial hair, which revealed that his face was without his signature beard in later years, something he admitted he hadn’t seen in 15 years.

“Time has not been kind to it in the meantime. I’m not just wrinkled in the space where there formerly resided a beard; I am positively wizened. Three or four strokes of my trimmer and I had aged twenty years,” he said.

WATCH: The type of lymphoma you have matters.

Lymphoma treatment largely depends on the nature of your specific diagnosis. For non-Hodgkin lymphoma patients, their cancer is more likely to spread randomly and be discovered in different groups of lymph nodes in the body. Hodgkin lymphoma cancers, on the other hand, are more likely to grow consistently from one group of lymph nodes directly to another.

Neill’s chemotherapy proved successful, as the actor revealed his cancer status in an Instagram post.

“I am alive and well, and I have been in remission for eight months, which feels really good,” Neill said.

Questions for Your Doctor

If you are facing a lymphoma diagnosis, here are some questions you can ask your doctor to begin your journey to a successful outcome.

• What type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma do I have?
• What stage of my lymphoma is in, and if it has spread, how far?
• Do we need to treat the lymphoma immediately?
• What treatment do you recommend to help me beat this diagnosis?
• Should I get more opinions about the treatment options available?
• What are some possible side effects I should expect during treatment?
• Will insurance cover the recommended treatment?

Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.

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