Sept. 3, 2022 -- Jane Fonda says she has non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and has been undergoing chemotherapy for six months.

“I have something personal I want to share. I’ve been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and have started chemo treatments,” the 84-year-old actress wrote on Instagram. “This is a very treatable cancer. 80% of people survive, so I feel very lucky.

“I’m also lucky because I have health insurance and access to the best doctors and treatments. I realize, and it’s painful, that I am privileged in this. Almost every family in America has had to deal with cancer at one time or another and far too many don’t have access to the quality health care I am receiving and this is not right.”

In an email statement, the American Cancer Society said an estimated 89,000 new cases of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma will be diagnosed this year in the United States and that more than 20,000 people will die of it.

“Her survival depends on a host of factors. It is potentially a curable malignancy, depending significantly upon the sub-type of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and the degree of spread at the time of diagnosis," said William Dahut, MD, chief scientific officer for the ACS.

The ACS said that patients with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma are usually treated with chemotherapy. Targeted drugs, immunotherapy, and radiation may be used for some subtypes of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Lymphoma is a malignancy of the lymphatic system, the network of nodes connected by vessels that drain fluid and waste products from the body. Lymphoma occurs when the lymph-node cells begin to multiply uncontrollably.

Fonda, a two-time Oscar winner, had a tumor removed from her breast in 2010 and has more recently been treated for skin cancer.

She says her recent diagnosis will not slow down her climate activism. In 2019 she started “Fire Drill Fridays” – street protests demanding that Congress pass the Green New Deal.

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