We know more about the death of New Zealand actor Sam Neill last Monday at the age of 78 in a Sydney hospital.
His family revealed the illness that took the star of “Jurassic Park”: Sam Neill succumbed to violent pneumonia, a lung infection that occurred after he had just won a major battle against cancer.
The actor has been battling stage 3 angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma since 2023, a very aggressive blood cancer. After serious failures with conventional chemotherapies, a revolutionary gene therapy treatment changed the situation: CAR-T cell therapy.
Very weakened
By modifying the patient’s cells to destroy the tumors, this cutting-edge medical protocol made it possible to announce his complete remission last spring.
Unfortunately, this immunotherapy treatment induces severe immunosuppression, lastingly depriving the body of its natural protective barriers.
It is this extreme vulnerability to bacterial and viral attacks that was fatal to him in the face of pneumonia. “For two weeks, Sam had been very ill. I think it was just too difficult to overcome, once again,” testified with emotion the journalist Laura Tingle, his ex-partner, on ABC Radio Sydney.
