Dave Coulier announced exclusively on the TODAY show that he’s been diagnosed with Stage 3 non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of blood cancer that starts in the lymphatic system.
The “Fuller House” star, who famously played Uncle Joey, noticed his first symptoms a little over a month ago, when he came down with a cold. In the past, he’d noticed the lymph nodes in his neck or armpits would swell when he was sick. This time, though, he felt surprised to discover a golf-ball sized lump in his groin within a week of falling ill.
“It swelled up immediately,” Coulier, 65, tells TODAY.com in a phone interview. “I thought, ‘Wow, I’m either really sick, or my body’s really reacting to something.’”
Worried, he visited his doctors who ran a variety of tests, including bloodwork, EKG, and PET and CT scans. While everything appeared to be normal, the doctors biopsied the lymph node just to be safe. Coulier soon learned why his lymph node became so enlarged.
“(My doctors) said, ‘Hey, we wish we had better news, but you have non-Hodgkin lymphoma, B-cell lymphoma,’” Coulier recalls. “It was a shock.”
Despite his cancer diagnosis, Coulier is still finding joy in life.
“My joke is that in four short weeks I’ve gone from a Virgo to a Cancer,” he says. “I’ve tried to retain a sense of reality but also a sense of humor about it.”
Dave Coulier diagnosed with Stage 3 non-Hodgkin lymphoma
When Coulier felt under the weather a little over a month ago and noticed a swollen lymph node in his groin, he felt puzzled.
“The onset of this growing lymphoma in my groin area was very quick. So I said, ‘Something’s not right,'” he recalled to Hoda during his Nov. 13 appearance on TODAY.
Coulier visited his doctor, who ordered a battery of tests.
“They said, ‘Yeah, we need to take a serious look at this.’ And so, we did blood tests,” he says. “Blood tests came back great. My EKG, everything great. Heart, everything perfect.”
But his doctors felt worried by how quickly the lump grew and ordered more advanced imaging before eventually wanting a sample of it for testing.
“‘We’d like to either remove this or biopsy it,’” Coulier recalls his doctors telling him. “I said, ‘Well, why don’t we just remove it and biopsy it at the same time?’”
Three days later, Coulier received the news from his doctor that he had B-cell lymphoma, a type of cancer that develops in B-lymphocytes, according to the American Cancer Society. B-cell lymphomas account for the vast majority of non-Hodgkin lymphomas. Every year, more than 80,000 Americans are diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
“The first thing I said to them was, ‘Wait a minute — cancer?’” he Coulier. “(I was) feeling like I got punched in the stomach because it never happens to you. You always hear about it happening to someone else.”
Hearing the news was even harder because his wife, Melissa Coulier, wasn’t at home.
“I was just contemplating, ‘How do I tell her?’” he says. “When I told her, of course, she thought I was joking.”
After he reassured her that he was not joking, Melissa “organized (his) entire life, from nutrition to the doctor’s appointments to the pills.”
“She’s got stuff color-coded,” he says. “It’s pretty great.”
To understand what stage of cancer he had, Coulier’s doctors took a bone marrow sample.
“They wanted to see if (the cancer had) moved on to any major organs or my blood or bones or anything,” he says. “That was pins and needles for a few days because I didn’t know what stage it was or if it had progressed.”
Yet at some point, Coulier started feeling a sort of acceptance.
“I told Melissa I don’t know why, but I (am) OK with whatever the news (is) going to be no matter how devastating. … I can’t explain where that came from,” he says. “I’ve had an incredible life. I’ve had the most amazing people in my life. This has been an extraordinary journey, and I’m OK if this is the end of the journey.”
A few days later, he learned he had Stage 3 non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Stage 3 non-Hodgkin lymphoma survival rate
Stage 3 non-Hodgkin lymphoma means the cancer has not spread outside the lymphatic system, according to the American Cancer Society. The five-year survival rate for B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma that has not spread widely is about 74%, per ACS.
“(Stage 3) doesn’t sound great,” Coulier says, but because it hasn’t spread to his bone marrow, doctors told him his curability rate is upwards of 90%.
“It’s very treatable,” he said on TODAY.
Starting chemotherapy
Doctors wanted Coulier to start chemotherapy promptly, and he underwent another surgery to have his chemotherapy port, which delivers the medication, placed.
Leading up to his first treatment, Coulier faced his fear of the unknowns of cancer.
“You hear chemo, and it scares the daylights out of you,” he says. “The first round was pretty intense because you don’t know what to expect. You don’t know how you’re going to feel. Is this going to hit me immediately? Is it going to be devastating? Am I going to walk out of here?”
As “a preemptive strike,” Coulier shaved his head, which he jokes makes him “look like a baby bird.” The last time he was bald was when he shaved his head during the “Full House” series wrap, getting rid of the mullet he sported for many years.
Coulier felt better than expected after his first round of chemotherapy. In total, he’ll have six rounds every 21 days and should be finished with treatment by February 2025. Following treatment, he expects a “total remission.”
“It’s been a bit of a roller coaster. There (are) days where I feel unbelievable,” he says. “Then there’s other days where … I’m just going to lay down and let this be what it’s going to be.”
Still he’s been able to maintain a positive outlook as he navigates treatment.
“This is a journey,” Coulier told Hoda. “This is a bit of a battle and you’re going to need to be on your game.”
When Coulier feels good, he takes advantage of it. He’s been recording episodes of the podcast “Full House Rewind” with his new co-host Marla Sokoloff, who played Gia Mahan on “Full House” and “Fuller House.” And he recently skated with the Detroit Red Wings alumni — though he can’t play hockey as it could damage his chemotherapy port. At the end of this week, John Stamos will visit him following his second round of chemotherapy.
“We’re going to have so many laughs. We’re going to have so much fun,” Coulier says. “I said, ‘It could be ‘Weekend at Bernie’s’ if I’m just out of it.’ And (Stamos) said, ‘That’s OK. I’ll carry you around.’”
Coulier feels grateful for his “incredible wife” and “incredible friends” supporting him through his cancer diagnosis and treatment.
“They all rallied around this, and a couple of comments that I’ve heard are, ‘Dave, you’re not letting us worry about this very much,’” Coulier says. “I don’t want you to. I want us to have happy times and we’ll get through this.”
Since his diagnosis, Coulier has learned that “he’s strong enough to know (his) weaknesses,” and he understands when to ask for help.
Raising awareness
Sadly, Coulier has plenty of experience with cancer.
“I lost my sister Sharon at 36 years old, breast cancer. I lost my niece Shannon at 29 years old, breast cancer,” he says. “I lost my mom, and now my sister Karen has cancer. So, over the years I’ve seen what the women in my family have gone through, and it’s been not only an awakening but a learning process.”
While it’s been tough watching cancer affect his family so dramatically, the actor has grown from it.
“When I was diagnosed, all of those memories came back of what they went through and so many hospital visits and sitting bedside and talking and having conversations and watching them leave the planet,” he says. “What they went through is 10 times harder than what I’m going through. So, if I can be one-tenth as strong as they were, I’m going to be fine.”
His family also taught him to embrace joy, and that has helped him maintain a positive outlook.
“My mom, my sister and my niece were laughing until the day they died,” he says. “That was a real inspiration for me to just remember that there’s a lot of happiness.”
Coulier’s looking forward to the future. His son, Luc, and his wife, Alex, are expecting a baby boy in March, and Coulier’s excited to become a grandfather and anticipates lots of flights from Michigan to Los Angeles to spend time with his family.
Coulier felt compelled to share his story to raise awareness of cancer and encourage others to undergo screening for it.
“The one thing that just kept presenting itself to me was to tell other people about it. Talk to them about getting something as simple as pre-screening or a breast exam, mammogram, a colonoscopy or a prostate exam,” he says. “It’s a really simple thing to do and it can add years to your life.”
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