The beloved former Full House star Dave Coulier has made the sad announcement that he has been hit with another cancer diagnosis. This comes months after he successfully beat stage 3 non-Hodgkin Lymphoma.
Coulier’s Second Cancer Diagnosis
Coulier, 66, revealed his new diagnosis on the TODAY show on Tuesday morning. There, he revealed that he’s recently been diagnosed with p16 squamous carcinoma, which is a form of tongue cancer. It was discovered when Coulier went in for a checkup and PET scan.
“To go through chemotherapy and feel that relief of whoah, 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 admitted.
Coulier had announced on April 1 that he had been declared cancer-free. Six months later, he was given this new diagnosis, which reportedly isn’t related to his first cancer battle.
“Totally unrelated to the previous cancer that I had,” Coulier said. “So in October of this year, I went in for a PET scan, just a routine check-up and something flared on the PET scan. It turned out that I have P16 squamous carcinoma at the base of my tongue. So I said to the doctors, I said, ‘Well, did this happen because of the lymphoma?’ And they said, ‘Totally unrelated.’”
Coulier was told by doctors that he would need to undergo 35 rounds of radiation to treat this new cancer.
“I’ll be done [on] December, 31,” he said.
Coulier’s Prognosis
As for the prognosis, Coulier thankfully says that it is “good.”
“Prognosis is very good for P16 squamous carcinoma,” he explained. “So it has a 90+ curability rate. But the thing that has really saved my life…is that early detection saved my life, not just the first time but the second time as well. So I hope you’re getting your check-ups. I hope your colonoscopies and breast exams and prostate exams, they will save your life.”
Even though prognosis is good, this second diagnosis has understandably been an emotional experience for Coulier and for his family.
“It’s emotional, it’s psychologically draining. It’s also a big drain to my wife, Melissa, which is the biggest drain on me, seeing how this affects her,” he confessed.
Coulier has been married to his wife Melissa since 2014. Indeed, she’s been his biggest supporter throughout both his cancer battles.
Coulier Is ‘Cautiously Optimistic’
As he looks at a month of radiation treatments, Coulier is still feeling “cautiously optimistic.”
“I’m going to get on the other side of this,” he concluded. “The silver lining here is that I had cancer, which helped me detect my other cancer. It seems crazy to be making that statement, but it’s true. Had I not gone in and listened to my doctors and made sure that I got that PET scan to follow up, we would have never found this carcinoma … and I could be in a world of hurt. This could have progressed immensely, and I would be in trouble.”
Coulier is best known for playing Uncle Joey on the beloved ABC sitcom Full House from 1987 until it ended in 1995. He starred in this series alongside Bob Saget, Candace Cameron Bure, John Stamos, and Lori Loughlin.
Fans were devastated when Coulier announced in November of last year that he had been diagnosed with stage 3 non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. They were then overjoyed when he confirmed that he’d been declared cancer-free in April. Here’s hoping that Coulier’s cancer battle also goes smoothly, and that he is soon cancer-free again.
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