Sam Neill has shared the kind of health update that lands with rare clarity: after years of treatment for stage 3 blood cancer, he says he is now cancer-free.
The 78-year-old New Zealand actor, best known globally for playing Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park, spoke about the news in an interview with Australia’s 7News that aired Sunday. Neill said he had been receiving chemotherapy to stay alive, a treatment he described plainly as “miserable,” before it stopped working.
“I was at a loss and it looked like I was on the way out, which wasn’t ideal obviously,” he recalled.
A clinical trial changed the picture
Neill then entered a clinical trial for a form of CAR-T therapy, a personalized immunotherapy that genetically modifies a patient’s own blood cells. The aim is to train immune cells to recognize and attack cancer cells. The American Cancer Society describes CAR-T therapy as a treatment that uses a person’s own immune system in a targeted way, rather than relying only on conventional chemotherapy.
Neill said his latest scan brought extraordinary news.
“I’ve just had a scan just now and there is no cancer in my body, that’s an extraordinary thing,” he told 7News.
He also made clear that his mind is moving back toward work. With a smile, he added, “It’s time I did another movie.”
“It is science at its best”
On Monday, Neill expanded on the treatment in an Instagram post, using his own case to argue for broader access to new cancer therapies.
“We were sailing into uncharted waters. No one knew exactly what we could expect,” he wrote of the trial. “I think I was first out of the block and i think the term for me was ‘Patient Zero.'”
Neill said he was still absorbing what he called a “miraculous” turn in his illness, but he was careful to give credit where he believes it belongs.
“But of course it is not a miracle, it is science at its best,” he wrote. “And a lot of people who care deeply about their work and their patients. I am immensely grateful.”
He also acknowledged that discussing his cancer publicly makes him “uncomfortable,” but said he wanted to speak up in the hope that more patients can benefit from breakthrough treatments.
Neill is supporting the Snowdome Foundation, a nonprofit that funds research and clinical trials designed to speed up new treatments and cures for Australian blood cancer patients.
His diagnosis became public through his memoir
Neill first wrote about his cancer diagnosis in his 2023 memoir, Did I Ever Tell You This?. In the book, he said he noticed swollen glands in March 2022 while doing press for Jurassic World Dominion.
He was later diagnosed with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a form of blood cancer.
In October 2023, Neill discussed the illness on Australian Story, saying he was “prepared” for death and was not “remotely afraid” of it.
“I know I’ve got it, but I’m not really interested in it,” he said of his lymphoma.
“It’s out of my control. If you can’t control it, don’t get into it,” he added.
This latest update does not erase the difficulty of the past several years, and Neill is not presenting it that way. What he is offering is more specific and more useful: a report from the other side of a trial that, in his case, appears to have changed the ending.
