Full House star Dave Coulier has revealed he is undergoing treatment for tongue cancer, a year after beating non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Coulier, 66, announced the diagnosis on NBC’s Today show on Tuesday, telling co-anchor Craig Melvin that the new cancer—an HPV-related oropharyngeal carcinoma—was discovered during a follow-up PET scan.
“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,” said the actor and comedian.
Coulier, best known for playing Uncle Joey Gladstone on the ABC sitcom, said doctors found a growth at the base of his tongue.
After multiple biopsies, he was diagnosed in October with early-stage, P16-positive squamous cell carcinoma—a form linked to the human papillomavirus.
“They said it’s totally unrelated to my non-Hodgkin lymphoma. This is a new cancer,” Coulier told the network. “They said it could stem from having an HPV virus up to 30 years ago.”
According to the American Cancer Society, P16-positive oropharyngeal cancers tend to respond better to treatment. Coulier said his doctors told him the disease has a 90 percent curability rate.
Coulier has begun a course of 35 radiation sessions, five days a week, through the end of December. “It’s a whole different animal than chemo,” he said, adding that he’s already experiencing side effects such as nausea and pain where tissue was removed. “That’s not 100 percent healed yet,” he said.
Yet Coulier remains upbeat despite the setback. “The silver lining here is that I had cancer, which helped me detect my other cancer,” he said.
“Had I not followed up, this could have progressed immensely.”
He credits his wife, Melissa, and their new grandson, Chance, born in March, for keeping his spirits high.
Coulier has also launched AwearMarket, a digital marketplace for toxin-free wellness products, in partnership with the V Foundation’s Hockey Fights Cancer initiative.
“I never wanted to be the poster boy for cancer, but I’m happy to do it,” he said. “Early detection saved my life, and now early detection saved my life again.”
He urged others to stay vigilant: “Get the mammogram, get the prostate exam, get a colonoscopy. Listen to your doctors—they will save your life.”
