Vivian Campbell, Def Leppard’s guitarist, has revealed that he is still fighting Hodgkin's lymphoma, a type of blood cancer that he was diagnosed with in 2013. Campbell shared his health update on the Lymphoma Voices podcast, where he talked about his treatment journey and how he manages to balance his music career with his medical condition.
Campbell said that he has been dealing with lymphoma for 10 years, and that it is like a game of Whac-A-Mole, where he beats back one tumor and another one pops up somewhere else. He said that he deals with it fine and that he has been able to live his life normally for the most part.
He also said that he was on immunotherapy for the bulk of those 10 years, taking a drug called Pembrolizumab as part of a clinical trial. He said that the drug worked well for him and that he was able to do monthly infusions and go about his life. However, he said that the drug lost its efficacy a year and a half ago, and that his oncologist had been telling him that he needed to consider different treatments.
In November of last year, Campbell underwent a combination of Pembrolizumab and three chemo drugs, but it did not put him into remission. He said that he recently started a new combination therapy of a chemo drug called Brentuximab and an immunotherapy drug called Nivolumab. He said that he is halfway through that treatment and that so far, so good. The only side effect he has experienced is hair loss, which he said he dealt with by cutting his hair super short.
Campbell also said that he has not let his lymphoma stop him from playing music with Def Leppard, and that he is currently on tour with them in Australia. He said that he loves playing live and that he feels very fortunate to be able to do what he does. He said that he hopes to inspire other people who are going through similar situations and that he wants to raise awareness and funds for lymphoma research.
Campbell and Def Leppard will wrap up their 2023 tour with shows on Wednesday in Brisbane, Saturday in Sydney and next Tuesday in Melbourne.
[Source: Classic Hits Today]