Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell will undergo a stem cell transplant this fall to battle the return of his Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Cambell first revealed the cancer news last summer, and advised fans that it had gone into remission last fall following chemotherapy treatments.
“Actually, the remission was a little bit premature. It came right back,” Campbell tells the Daily Herald. “I don't know if the cancer came back or it never totally went away, you know, but the initial scan I did last fall after doing my chemo, the scan came back clean. But there was something about it the oncologist was unclear about and didn't feel good about, so I was referred to another specialist.”
“I suppose one of the advantages about being in this city [Los Angeles] that I dislike so much is that there's a lot of great medical facilities here,” the guitarist continued. “There's a place called City of Hope just outside of L.A., and there's a specific oncologist there who's probably the leading oncologist with regards to Hodgkins in the U.S., and he sent me to him. He had a look at my scans and, you know, everyone was a little bit apprehensive, and he said, 'Well, for now you appear to be in remission." I kind of took that ball and I ran with it, and unfortunately it turned out to be premature. So the followup scan that I did a couple months later showed that there was definitely some growth coming back. I ended up having a couple of biopsies -- I did a needle biopsy in January and that showed that I was fine, but my oncologist said, and he was right, that needle biopsies are notoriously uncertain, and he suggested I do a surgical biopsy.”
“So I went to Dublin and started to record with the band [in February], we started work on a new record, and as soon as I got back from that, I did another surgical biopsy and that showed that the cancer had definitely come back,” he explained. “I'm actually doing this new high-tech chemo treatment, I'm about halfway through it already, and it's really kind of easy going. It's the first new drug that's been discovered for Hodgkin's since 1977 and they made this discovery in 2011, and it's actually being pioneered here at City of Hope, so I'm part of this research clinical trial that's going on. It's very, very benign chemo, actually it just targets -- I don't know how it works, obviously I'm not a medical person, but somehow or other it just manages to target the cancer cells. It's not like old-school, carpet-bomb chemo where it kills all the fast-growing cells, so I haven't experienced any hair loss or any issues with my skin or nails or anything this time around, which is good. And assuming that works, I'm going to have to continue a couple of treatments, actually, over the course of the [KISS] tour, so that's awkward to work around, but not impossible.”
“Assuming that it all works and I actually get to a perceived remission stage by August,” he added, “then as soon as the tour is over in early September I'm going to get a stem-cell transplant, which I can't say I'm looking forward to, but I've been told if I don't do that, the cancer's going to just keep coming back every couple years. And every time it's a little bit more resistant. It is what it is. It could be worse -- but at least I have health insurance. (laughs)”
Campbell and Def Leppard kicked off a summer tour of North American tour with KISS on Monday in West Valley City, Utah.
The trek will hit more than 40 cities across North America before it wraps up August 31 in Houston, Texas.
See also:
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