Kiwi actor Sir Sam Neill has revealed he is cancer-free, admitting at times it "looked like I was on the way out".
The Jurassic Park star was diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer – a lymphoma – five years ago, and has been undergoing treatment since.
In an interview with Australia's 7News, Neill said he had undergone CAR T-cell therapy, a type of treatment that genetically modifies blood cells. The treatment was in clinical trials to treat myeloma, another form of blood cancer.
“I’ve just had a scan just now, and there is no cancer in my body, that’s an extraordinary thing,” Neill said.
He said that before the treatment, he had been on chemotherapy, and said it was a "pretty miserable business, but it was keeping me alive".
“Then the chemo stopped working. I was at a loss, and it looked like I was on the way out, which wasn’t ideal, obviously.”
Describing the treatment as "science at its best", Neill credited it with his becoming cancer-free.
He has since become an advocate for the therapy, which has received regulatory approval in Australia and will be rolled out in some states across the coming months.
The treatment is only available in New Zealand through clinical trials, with one underway at the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research.
The institute said its biggest barriers were managing side effects and the cost of the treatment.
"By combining an improved safety profile with cost-effective manufacturing, we aim to address both issues.”
Its goal was to "confirm the effectiveness and safety of our CAR T-cell therapy and, ultimately, to get it registered for routine use in New Zealand and Australia".
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