Actor Sam Neillthe “Jurassic Park” star, revealed he is cancer free after undergoing a new treatment when chemotherapy stopped working. Neill was battling stage three blood cancer.
He announced news about his health during an interview for 7Newswhile championing the introduction of CAR T-cell therapy for blood cancer patients across Australia. It is a form of cancer immunotherapy that he underwent as part of a clinical trial.
“I’ve been living with a certain type of lymphoma for about five years now and I’ve been going through chemotherapy, which is pretty miserable, but it’s kept me alive,” said the actor, who revealed his diagnosis in 2023 in his memoir, Did I Ever Tell You This?. When his book was published, Neill was taking a new chemotherapy drug every month to keep the cancer under control.
However, his chemotherapy stopped working at some point. “I was lost and it looked like I was going to die, which is not ideal, obviously,” the actor said. Still, he didn’t want to give up, so he decided to participate in a CAR T-cell therapy clinical trial focusing on his type of lymphoma.
“I just had a scan and there is no cancer in my body, it’s an amazing thing. I’m very, very excited that this can happen,” he noted, and then, to the surprise of fans, he concluded: “It’s time to make a new movie.”
CAR T-cell therapy is currently only available under the Australian public health system for certain types of cancer, in certain hospitals. Private treatments currently cost about $430,000 per patient. Neill, with the help of the non-profit Snowdome Blood Cancer Foundation, is calling on the government to expand the availability of CAR T-cell therapy to more cancer patients.
“I’m still processing this amazing information. But of course, this is not a miracle, this is science at its best. And lots of people who care deeply about their work and their patients. I’m extremely grateful. I hope that treatments like this – CAR T therapy and others to come in a rapidly changing medical world – will be available to everyone who needs them in Australia and New Zealand (and around the world). That’s what I’m advocating, with the Snowdome Foundation,” added Sam.
CAR T-cell therapy involves taking T-cells, a type of white cell, from a patient and genetically engineering them to target and kill cancer cells. The modified T-cells are grown in the laboratory and then returned to the patient by infusion. This type of treatment has been shown to be particularly successful in treating certain types of blood cancer, but results are less encouraging in solid tumors and long-term outcomes are unclear.
However, American researchers discovered in 2025 that a woman who was treated with CAR T-cell therapy as a child for neuroblastoma, a type of solid tumor, was cancer-free for 18 years.
