Actor Sam Neill on life in remission after cancer diagnosis: ‘I only get better with age’

Sam Neill has been on a new experimental drug to fight off his disease. Photo / Getty Images

Sam Neill “feels great” amid his cancer battle.

The 76-year-old Jurassic Park actor says he has been in remission for two years after fighting stage 3 angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma — a form of blood cancer — and he’s excited for his new Peacock series, Apples Never Fall, as he continues to love his work.

He told Entertainment Tonight: “Listen, I have been in remission for two years now and I feel great. I only get better with age.”

Last year, Neill insisted that although he wasn’t afraid of death after battling the disease, he “would be annoyed” because he still had plenty he wanted to achieve.

He has been on a new experimental drug to fight his disease, but despite the promising news, he knows it won’t last forever.

He’s been told by his doctors that one day the drug will stop working, which he is “prepared for”.

He told Australian Story at the time: “I’m not in any way frightened of dying. That doesn’t worry me. It’s never worried me from the beginning, but I would be annoyed.

Neill started chemotherapy but it stopped working after three months so he switched his treatment to a rare anti-cancer drug. Photo / Instagram

“I’d be annoyed because there are things I still want to do. Very irritating, dying. But I’m not afraid of it.”

After his diagnosis, Neill started chemotherapy but it stopped working after three months and he switched his treatment to a rare anti-cancer drug, which has led to him going into remission.

He has now been cancer-free for a year but still requires infusions every two weeks.

Neill said of his cancer: “I know I’ve got it, but I’m not really interested in it. It’s out of my control. If you can’t control it, don’t get into it.”

He first revealed news of his cancer battle in his book Did I Ever Tell You This, which he started work on following his diagnosis.

Speaking to Sky News after the book’s release, he said: “The cancer thing came out as a corollary to the release of the book, which is a memoir that I wrote when I was under chemo. I’m doing absolutely fine now. What was slightly annoying was that the story was sort of ‘cancer, cancer, cancer, cancer’, and really the other half of the story is ‘remission, remission and remission’ — and I’m absolutely fine.”