“I was shocked”: Sylvester Stallone on learning of friend Dolph Lundgren’s cancer battle

Recently, Rocky IV and Creed 2 star Dolph Lundgren revealed he has been secretly battling cancer for eight years. The 65-year-old Swedish actor opened up to the In Depth with Graham Bensinger podcast, telling the host that doctors discovered a cancerous tumor in his kidney in 2015 which they were able to successfully remove.

However, other tumors sprung up, and at one point, he was losing the fight. He asked his doctor, “‘How long do you think I’ve got left?’ And I think he said two or three years, but I could tell in his voice that he probably thought it was less,” he recalled.

The news came as a shock to his pal Sylvester Stallone, he told ABC Audio Thursday, explaining he just called his pal, who incidentally appears on Sly’s upcoming reality show The Family Stallone.

“I did,” Stallone said. “I didn’t know about it until I read about it yesterday. And I was shocked because we’ve been dealing with each other for years, including in the last couple of years. And I never knew that he was undergoing this incredible pain.”

He added, “It’s, you know, just the fact that he’s living in fear never brought it up. He then, you’ll see in other episodes, he is just outgoing and happy. He’s one tough guy.”

Stallone explained he called him Wednesday, expressing, “I felt really sad. Yeah, I really do. But he says it’s gotten better. And I’m going, ‘Okay.'” 

Lundgren also revealed that he had some of the tumors around his kidneys surgically removed, and after getting a second opinion and a new course of treatment, others shrank by 90%.

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