The Moment
Dave Coulier is back in a hospital gown instead of a comedy hoodie, and nobody asked for this reboot.
The 66-year-old Full House and Fuller House star revealed on NBC’s Today show that he has HPV-related oropharyngeal tongue cancer, just months after celebrating that he was cancer-free from stage 3 non-Hodgkin lymphoma and had become a grandfather.
Coulier called the new diagnosis a “shock to the system” and stressed that it’s a different, unrelated cancer. Doctors, he said, told him it may have started with an HPV virus from as far back as 30 years ago that later turned into a carcinoma.
The tiny slice of good news in all this: he described the tongue cancer as “very treatable,” with about a 90 percent curability rate, and said his prognosis is good. He’s already begun radiation, which he says feels “less aggressive” than chemo but comes with its own side effects and a serious emotional toll on him and his wife, photographer Melissa Bring.
The Take
If you grew up with Uncle Joey’s “Cut. It. Out.” on your TV, it almost feels personal watching Dave Coulier turn into what he jokingly calls the “poster boy for cancer.” Two major cancers, two rounds of treatment, one human body.
What stands out is how he’s framing all of this: not as a tragedy brand, not as a pity tour, but as a real-time case study in early detection. He said, bluntly, that catching things early has now saved his life twice. For a generation of fans that grew up during the “walk it off, don’t see a doctor” era, that’s quietly radical.
I’m also struck by how matter-of-fact he is about HPV. For years, anything HPV-related was whispered about like some moral failing instead of what it usually is: a very common infection that most adults have been exposed to at some point. Coulier just sits there on morning TV and says, essentially, this might come from something I picked up decades ago, and here we are. That kind of honesty does more for de-stigmatizing than a dozen health campaigns.
His description of radiation as a “whole different animal” from chemo, and his worry about what all this is doing to Melissa, hits just as hard as the medical details. It’s a reminder that when one person gets cancer, the whole household gets cancer. The patient gets the IVs; the partner gets the endless uncertainty.
In a way, Coulier is living out the grown-up version of what Full House used to preach in those tidy 22 minutes: life will absolutely blindside you, but you don’t have to go through it alone. Only now, instead of a hug and a lesson over soft synth music, it’s PET scans, radiation, and a lot of very real fear.
Receipts
“Full House” star Dave Coulier has been diagnosed with tongue cancer, 7 months after beating stage 3 non-Hodgkin Lymphoma: “It’s totally unrelated to the previous cancer.”
“Prognosis is very good for P16 squamous carcinoma. So it has a 90% curability rate. But the thing that has… pic.twitter.com/BXlrI8LUuP
— Variety (@Variety) December 2, 2025
Confirmed
- In a December 2025 interview on NBC’s Today show, Dave Coulier said he has HPV-related oropharyngeal tongue cancer, calling the diagnosis a “shock to the system” and emphasizing it is “totally unrelated” to his previous non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
- He stated on-air that doctors told him the cancer is “very treatable” with around a 90 percent curability rate and that he is starting radiation immediately.
- Coulier previously revealed on Today in November 2024 that he had stage 3 lymphoma and has since shared that he was declared cancer-free earlier in 2025, the same day he found out he became a grandfather.
- On an April 2025 episode of the How Rude, Tanneritos! podcast, he described that remission day as “amazing” and talked about his relief at beating lymphoma.
- Through photos and captions on his Instagram account in 2024 and 2025, Coulier has documented his cancer treatments, hospital stays, and recovery, often updating fans about his progress.
Unverified / Context
- Coulier said doctors told him his tongue cancer could stem from an HPV infection from up to 30 years ago. That explanation reflects what he says his doctors told him; it doesn’t mean HPV is the cause of every similar cancer case.
- Any broader health takeaways here – about screenings, HPV, or vaccines – are general context and not specific medical advice for any individual reader.
Sources: Coulier’s televised interviews on NBC’s Today show in November 2024 and December 2, 2025; his April 21, 2025 appearance on the How Rude, Tanneritos! podcast; and posts from his verified Instagram account in 2024-2025.
Backstory (For Casual Readers)
For anyone who hasn’t thought about Full House since the Clinton years: Dave Coulier played Joey Gladstone, the goofy, cartoon-voiced best friend who helped raise three girls in a San Francisco townhouse that no one on Earth could actually afford. He returned for Fuller House in the 2010s and has since leaned into nostalgia tours, including fan conventions and cast podcasts.
In late 2024, Coulier revealed he’d quietly been battling stage 3 non-Hodgkin lymphoma. He went through chemotherapy, was later told he was in remission, and shared that he learned he was cancer-free on the same day he found out he was a grandfather. It was a neat little life-miracle bow on a brutal chapter – until this new tongue cancer diagnosis landed six months later.
What’s Next
Right now, Coulier’s focus is on getting through radiation. That process can affect speech, swallowing, and energy levels, which means fans might see less of him at conventions or on camera while he gets through the thick of it.
Given how open he’s been so far, it’s likely he’ll keep using Instagram and future interviews to update fans on his progress. Don’t be surprised if he becomes even more vocal about early detection and routine checkups, especially for men his age who think avoiding the doctor is a personality trait.
The hopeful note in all this: his doctors are optimistic, the cure rate is high, and he’s already beaten one major cancer. If anyone has earned a long, boring stretch of good health and grandpa duties, it’s the guy who spent the ’80s and ’90s making kids laugh with woodchuck puppets.
Your turn: When a celebrity you grew up with goes through something this serious, does it actually nudge you to book your own checkups, or do you keep it in the “that’s sad” box and move on?
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