- Full House star Dave Coulier recently shared his oropharyngeal tongue cancer diagnosis.
- The diagnosis comes less than a year after he announced he was in remission for another unrelated cancer.
- He credits “early detection” with saving his life in both instances.
After beating non-Hodgkin lymphoma earlier this year, Dave Coulier announced that he was diagnosed with a second, completely unrelated form of cancer in October. The Full House star revealed his oropharyngeal tongue cancer diagnosis during an appearance on the Today show this week, and says doing one thing, in particular, saved his life.
He noted that doctors discovered it during a routine PET scan and checkup.
“Something flared on the PET scan,” he said. “It turned out that I have P16 squamous carcinoma at the base of my tongue. So I said to the doctors, I said, ‘Well, did this happen because of the lymphoma?’ And they said, ‘Totally unrelated.’”
Coulier went public with his non-Hodgkin lymphoma diagnosis last November. That cancer was discovered after he noticed a lump in his groin after getting sick. It was stage 3 at the time, meaning doctors found it and were able to start treatment before it spread outside of the lymphatic system. By March 2025, after multiple rounds of chemo, he was considered cancer-free—until that routine PET scan.
Despite this latest setback, Coulier expects he will recover from tongue cancer as well. “Prognosis is very good for P16 squamous carcinoma,” he told Today host Craig Melvin. Rather than chemotherapy, he has to undergo 35 rounds of radiation, and is expected to be finished by the end of the year.
In both cases, Coulier credits one thing in particular for a relatively speedy recovery.
“Early detection saved my life,” he said. “Not just the first time but the second time as well. So I hope you’re getting your check-ups. I hope your colonoscopies and breast exams, and prostate exams, they will save your life.”
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