Overview
- Neill, 78, told Australia’s 7News in an interview that aired Sunday that new scans show no detectable cancer after he received CAR T-cell therapy when chemotherapy failed.
- CAR T-cell therapy is a personalized immunotherapy that reprograms a patient’s T cells to recognize and kill cancer cells, a process a hematologist described as “turbocharging” the immune system.
- He was diagnosed with stage-three angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma in 2022 and went public in 2023 after months of chemotherapy that kept him alive before it stopped working.
- He is working with the Snowdome Foundation to press federal and state funding for broader access, as the therapy is mostly available through trials in Australia or privately at costs reported up to about A$750,000.
- Neill says he plans to return to acting, and his high-profile case is focusing attention on expanding CAR T programs in Australia, which advocates want rolled out across states such as Victoria and New South Wales.