Dave Coulier made an appearance on NBC's TODAY Show the morning of Tuesday, December 2 to reveal not only that he has started a new healthcare venture, AwearMarket, but that he had also been diagnosed with a second form of cancer.
Last year, the actor, 66, shared on the same show that he had been diagnosed with stage-3 non-Hodgkin lymphoma. However, earlier this year, he confirmed that after undergoing chemotherapy, he was officially cancer-free.
Now, as he shared on Today Show, the Full House star has been diagnosed with a HPV-related oropharyngeal tongue cancer near the back of his tongue, although he confirmed that it was unrelated to his previous diagnosis.
"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," he stated. He had no symptoms leading up to his second cancer diagnosis, which arose after a routine scan caught an anomaly.
He revealed that it was specifically early stage P16 carcinoma on the base of his tongue, which is usually caused by HPV-16, a high-risk type of HPV (human papillomavirus), the most common sexually transmitted infection. Dave explained that his prognosis could've stemmed from an HPV virus as long as 30 years ago, adding: "A lot of people carry the HPV virus, but they said mine activated and turned into a carcinoma."
Per the CDC: "When the body's immune system can't get rid of an HPV infection with oncogenic HPV types, it can linger over time and turn normal cells into abnormal cells and then cancer." Watch more of his conversation below...
As for symptoms, the CDC notes: "Symptoms of oropharyngeal cancer may include a long-lasting sore throat, earaches, hoarseness, swollen lymph nodes, pain when swallowing, and unexplained weight loss," adding that just like in Dave's case, "some people have no symptoms."
The actor explained how it all happened. "It was a really tough year, chemotherapy was grueling," adding that he was still getting PET scans often despite being cancer-free. "A couple of months ago, I had a PET scan, and something flared on the scan. The doctor said, 'We don't know what it is, but there's something at the base of your tongue.'"
After a few more tests, they revealed that he had been diagnosed with tongue cancer. "They said it's totally unrelated to my non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. This is a new cancer… I said, 'Are you kidding me?'"
Fortunately, however, Dave noted that his cancer was thankfully caught early and is very curable. "We found it early enough where it's very treatable… It's got a 90% curability rate. The doctor said the prognosis is good, but we're going to start radiation immediately."
He is scheduled for radiation therapy from Monday-Friday over the next few weeks, 35 appointments in total, before finally wrapping up treatment, appropriately, on December 31. "I get to start the new year saying, I finished radiation yesterday! It's kind of serendipitous."