Rocky actor Dolph Lundgren has been battling cancer for eight years

Dolph Lundgren, 65, rose to prominence in 1985 thanks to his breakthrough role in Rocky IV which saw him portray Soviet boxer Ivan Drago.

Almost four decades later, Dolph has spoken out on his health as he revealed he has been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, but chose to keep his diagnosis private.

The Hollywood star explained that the first tumour was found in his kidney eight years ago and he received treatment for it.

However, the cancer later spread to his lungs, spine, liver and stomach, and in 2020, he was told the cancer was terminal.

Lundgren said: “[There was a] tumour in my kidney and they took it out in 2015 […] but then they did a biopsy and it was cancerous.”

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The actor also opened up on how was told he had 2-3 years left to live by one doctor after his cancer returned.

Lundgren then sought a second opinion, after which he put on a treatment which has resulted in the tumours shrinking.

In a clip from the interview, while still wearing a hospital gown, he says: “It’s the day after my surgery, they took out one tumour, then they took out another two they found and another three small ones. Hopefully it’s cleaned out, if it dies, it dies.”

In his interview on In Depth with Graham Besinger, Lundgren also recounted how he found out the cancer had returned three years ago.

He recalled: “In 2020, I was back in Sweden and I had some kind of acid reflux, I didn’t know what it was so I did an MRI.

“They found that there were a few more tumours around that area.”

He went on: “They found one more tumor in the liver, so I was like aw s**** okay.

“At that point it started to hit me that this was something serious. The surgeon called me and said it had grown, it was too big, it had grown to the size of a small lemon.

“I asked them how long do I have left, I think he said 2-3 years but I could tell in his voice he thought it was less. I thought that was it for sure.”