Mark Hoppus has shared an update on his ongoing battle with cancer, confirming to fans during a Twitch stream that he has stage 4 diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.
It is the same type of cancer that Hoppus’ mother once battled and beat, with the Blink-182 bassist revealing he has received words of advice and encouragement from the person who has beaten cancer on three separate occasions.
Speaking during an online Q&A, Hoppus revealed, “My official classification is diffuse large B-cell lymphoma stage 4-A. As I understand it, it’s entered enough parts of my body that I’m stage four, which is, I think, the highest that it goes.”
Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, as explained by Cancer Research, is a form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which is a cancer of the lymphatic system that aggressively targets the body’s white blood cells. The Lymphoma Research Foundation reports that more than 18,000 people are diagnosed with it each year.
During the Q&A, Hoppus also revealed that he has at least three more rounds of chemotherapy to go, in anticipation of a test that will reveal how successful his experience with the therapy has been so far.
“Tomorrow’s test is to find out if my chemotherapy is working at all,” commented Hoppus. “If it is, then I go back for at least three more rounds.
“Ideally, I go in tomorrow and they say, ‘Congratulations! Your chemotherapy has worked and you are all done, and you’ll never have to think about this cancer ever again for the rest of your life,'" he continued.
“If that happens, no matter what, even if the cancer is totally gone from my whole body, they give me three more rounds of chemo just to make sure.
“If I go in tomorrow and they say, ‘It’s kind of working, we think it’s working,’ then I’ll still do three more rounds, I think. If they say, ‘Well it’s not really working like we hoped,’ then I have to go and talk about other options.
“I’m remaining positive,” asserted Hoppus. “We’re beating this cancer. It’s just a matter of time.”
Hoppus initially revealed his cancer diagnosis on June 23 via social media, when he announced that he had already been undergoing chemotherapy for three months.
His Blink-182 bandmates Tom DeLonge and Travis Barker both shared their support for Hoppus, with DeLonge writing, “I would also like to say that he is strong, and a super-human who is pushing through this difficult obstacle with a wide-open heart.”
