Def Leppard’s Vivian Campbell is “utterly clear” of most cancers.
Vivian Campbell has declared he’s is cancer-free after a prolonged battle with the illness
The 62-year-old rocker was identified with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2013, and after taking a while out to recuperate from remedy, he returned to the stage with the Pour Some Sugar On Me band in Could.
After present process some “hardcore chemotherapy” and a profitable bone marrow transplant, Campbell has revealed his PET scan in April confirmed no indicators of most cancers.
Talking on SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk, he mentioned: “I have been very fortunate, really. I acquired an early analysis for Hodgkin’s lymphoma 13 years in the past, 12 years in the past, one thing like that. [I went] by the mill with all kinds of chemo and immunotherapy and mixture therapies, and 10 years in the past I did an autologous stem cell transplant, which suggests utilizing my very own stem cells. That did not work. The most cancers stored coming again, after which a few years in the past, it actually acquired dangerous. So it was the primary time in having to cope with it that I used to be severely involved about it. And the medical doctors informed me actually my solely probability for of remedy was to do a donor transplant. And that is precisely what I did. Beginning final summer time throughout our tour, I began doing extra chemo in preparation for it. After which proper after the tour, they began giving me very hardcore chemo main as much as the transplant. I used to be supposed to begin after Thanksgiving, and I misplaced my donor 10 days beforehand. In order that was a kick within the nuts. However I used to be very lucky that they discovered me one other one in December. And on New 12 months’s Eve, I went into hospital. I used to be in for about three and a half weeks, and I did what has turned out to be a extremely, actually profitable transplant. So I did a PET scan in the course of April and I am 100% clear, utterly in remission for the primary time in 12 or 13 years. And I’m clearly overjoyed. You could not ask for greater than that.”
The guitarist hopes to purchase his donor a beer someday to thank him for saving his life.
He mentioned: “A younger man, really. I do not get to know who he’s for a few years, however a 21-year-old man. They usually all the time choose a youthful donor. Clearly, I am gonna purchase him a beer — or two or three.”
Campbell underwent immunotherapy remedy and was a part of a medical trial for the remedy pembrolizumab amid his battle with the illness.
Talking on the Lymphoma Voices podcast in 2023, he mentioned: “I am nonetheless coping with the lymphoma.
“It is type of like – it is an American expression – Whac-a-Mole. You beat one thing again after which it pops up some place else. But it surely’s been a reasonably constant battle, however it hasn’t been too tough for me. I cope with it high quality. I have been capable of reside my life.
“For the majority of these 10 years, I really was doing immunotherapy. Beginning in June of 2015, I began taking a drug referred to as pembrolizumab. I bear in mind on the time my medical doctors wished me to do radiation and perhaps a mix of radiation and chemo. And I simply thought, ‘Nicely, let’s simply do this immunotherapy factor. Let’s have a look at if this works.’ So I managed to get on the trial. I am joyful to say that it labored nicely for me.”
