Former Full House star Dave Coulier is undergoing treatment for tongue cancer just under a year after beating non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Coulier revealed that he’s now battling HPV-related oropharyngeal tongue cancer in a new interview with Today. “To go through chemotherapy and feel that relief of whoa, it’s gone, and then to get a test that says, well, now you’ve got another kind of cancer … it is a shock to the system,” Coulier said.
Oropharyngeal tongue cancer forms in the middle section of the throat, known as the oropharynx, per the American Cancer Society. The oropharynx includes parts of the tongue, the back part of the roof of the mouth, and the tonsils, all of which help with breathing, eating, swallowing, and talking. Saliva is produced in the oropharynx, too.
Coulier said his doctors first noticed the new cancer during a routine PET scan check-up after he’d completed chemotherapy for his non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The comedian said something “flared on the scan” at the base of his tongue, so a biopsy was performed.
“It was very painful. It’s like if you bit your tongue, but the pain just lasted every single day,” Coulier said.
While the initial biopsy didn’t show signs of cancer, the same spot had grown when Coulier returned for his next PET scan. Coulier went to an ear, nose, and throat oncologist for more testing, and after a CT scan, an MRI, and a second biopsy to remove an even larger part of his tongue, the results came back positive for cancer cells.
“[The doctors] said it’s totally unrelated to my non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. This is a new cancer,” Coulier recalled. “I said, ‘Are you kidding me?’”
Coulier’s doctors told him the cancer could’ve stemmed from a long-dormant HPV virus that “activated and turned into a carcinoma.” But luckily, the comedian added, his doctors found the cancer early enough that was considered “very treatable.”
“It’s got a 90 percent curability rate,” Coulier said. “The doctor said the prognosis is good, but we’re going to start radiation immediately.”
Coulier said his radiation treatments are less “aggressive” than chemo, there are still “side effects” like nausea and brain fog; he’s also still contending with some residual pain from the biopsies. But Coulier and his doctors expect the cancer to be gone by the time he finishes radiation at the end of the year.
“My joke usually is … I’m doing really well for a guy with cancer,” Coulier quipped.
