'Jurassic Park' Star Sam Neill Reveals He's Cancer-Free After Five-Year Battle
Sam Neill, largely known for his role in the cult classic film Jurassic Park, revealed an update on his cancer journey. The actor has been battling blood cancer for several years, and announced he's now cancer-free.
The 78-year-old actor shared the good news during an interview with Australian network 7News this past Sunday. Having been diagnosed with stage 3 blood cancer, Neill explained that it was "miserable business" as the chemotherapy was keeping him alive. Sadly, the treatment stopped working, with the actor "at a loss and it looked like I was on the way out, which wasn't ideal obviously."
Having battled one of cinema's biggest on-screen monsters, Neill wasn't ready to give up. The actor started a clinical trial for a type of CAR-T therapy. The treatment works to modify a person's blood cells to create a form of immunotherapy where the immune cells begin to attack and fight off the cancerous ones. CAR-T therapy is also being used as a clinical trial for myeloma, another form of blood cancer.
It appears that the treatment has worked, as Neill shared, "I've just had a scan just now, and there is no cancer in my body, that's an extraordinary thing."
The actor posted the interview on Instagram with his own caption detailing his cancer journey. He admitted to not having be comfortable with talking about his cancer, with the new treatment causing them to "sail into uncharted waters."
"No one knew exactly what we could expect. I think I was first out of the block, and I think the term for me was "Patient Zero". From now on, please address me as Mr Zero!" he wrote.
Neills goes on to thank the medical team behind his treatment, and doesn't call it a miracle, but "science at its best." He now advocates for the clinical trial treatment and similar ones like it, hoping it will be available to anyone who needs it worldwide. The actor was diagnosed in 2022 when noticing swollen glands while doing press for Jurassic World Dominion. Tests confirmed he had angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma.
While having once accepted the possibility of death, Neill now jokes it may be time for him to star in a new movie.
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This story was originally published April 29, 2026 at 1:55 PM.