(WTVO) — Action star Dolph Lundgren, 65, said he’s “lucky to be alive” Wednesday after revealing he has been fighting cancer for 8 years.

As reported by The New York Post, the Swedish actor, who starred in “Rocky IV,” “Creed 2,” “Universal Soldier,” “Aquaman” and “The Expendables,” appeared in an interview on “In Depth with Graham Bensinger” in which he revealed his ordeal began in 2015.

“They found a tumor … in my kidney, and they took it out here in LA in 2015. But then they did a biopsy — and it was cancerous,” Lundgren said.

Then, in 2020, Lundgren said he began experiencing what he thought was acid reflux.

It turned out that six tumors had grown in his kidneys and liver.

“At that point, it started to hit me that this is kind of something serious,” he said.

“The surgeon called me and said, ‘No, it’s grown now. It’s too big. We can’t take it out,’” Lundgren recalled. “It’s like the size of like a small lemon.”

“His mouth got really sore, his hands got sore — his feet — and he couldn’t eat anything warm or anything cold, anything spicy,” said his fiancée, Emma Krokdal. “So that was a struggle to get food down so he kept losing weight.”

At that point, Lundgren said he thought he was a “lost cause.”

“They started saying things like, ‘You should take a break and spend more time with your family.’ So I kinda asked him, ‘How long do you think I have left?’ and I think he said, ‘Two to three years’ but I could tell in his voice that it was less,” Lundgren recalled.

“I thought it was it for sure,” he added. “You kind of look at your life and go ‘I’ve had a frickin’ great life.’ I’ve lived like five lifetimes in one. So it wasn’t like I was bitter about it. It was just like, you know, feel sorry for my kids and my fiancée and people around you.”

Lundgren was able to seek out a second opinion, from Dr. Alexandra Drakaki, who prescribed medication that had success in shrinking tumors.

By the end of 2022, Lundgren said the tumor had shrunk by 90%.

“I used to say his cancer is melting away,” Drakaki said. “There are certain parts of his body that the cancer is responding really well. There’s some lesions that we cannot see them anymore. So that is above expectations.”

Lundgren added that he now “appreciates life more” and said he feels “lucky to be alive.”