Comedian and actor Dave Coulier announced he has been diagnosed with Stage 3 non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a blood cancer that begins in the lymphatic system. The Full House star, 65, told People in an interview published on Wednesday, November 13, that he received his diagnosis in October after an upper respiratory infection resulted in severe swelling of his lymph nodes.

Coulier told NBC’s Today show that he later noticed lump in his groin about the size of a golf ball: “It swelled up immediately. I thought, ‘Wow, I’m either really sick, or my body’s really reacting to something.  Three days later, my doctors called me back and they said, ‘We wish we had better news for you, but you have non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and it’s called B cell and it’s very aggressive.’ I went from, I got a little bit of a head cold to I have cancer, and it was pretty overwhelming. This has been a really fast roller coaster ride of a journey.” 

Doctors told Coulier the his curability rate is over 90%, since the cancer hasn’t spread to his bone marrow; Coulier started chemotherapy about two weeks after the diagnosis, and shaved his head as a preemptive measure. The actor said that he’s had “three surgeries” and if his treatment goes as planned, he should be in “total remission” by the time he completes chemo in February 2025.

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