Jane Fonda announces her cancer is in remission

Jane Fonda, the actress and activist whose career spans back to the 1960s, announced Thursday that her cancer is in remission. Fonda had been diagnosed with B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, she revealed in September.

“Last week I was told by my oncologist that my cancer is in remission and I can discontinue chemo,” the 84-year-old “Grace and Frankie” star wrote in a blog post titled “Best Birthday Present Ever.” Fonda thanked everyone who “prayed and sent good thoughts my way.”

Fonda also used the announcement to draw attention to her environmental activism.

“I’m especially happy because while my first 4 chemo treatments were rather easy for me, only a few days of being tired, the last chemo session was rough and lasted 2 weeks making it hard to accomplish much of anything,” she said. “The effects wore off just as I went to D.C. for the first live, in-person Fire Drill Fridays rally.”

Fire Drill Fridays are demonstrations aimed at fighting the climate crisis that are held on Fridays in Washington, D.C. Fonda was arrested at several of the protests back in 2019. 

Fonda also encouraged people to call their senators to oppose a proposal from Sen. Joe Manchin to overhaul the government’s permitting process for energy projects, calling it the “Dirty Deal.”

“This deal, called ‘permitting reform,’ seeks to fast track fossil fuel projects, does great harm to bedrock environmental protections and curtails the public’s ability to have input, basically throwing marginalized communities disproportionately burdened by fossil fuel pollution under the bus,” she wrote.

When Fonda first announced her cancer diagnosis, she wrote that it was “a very treatable cancer,” and advocated for greater health care access.

“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,” she wrote.

Fonda was previously diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010. She had the tumor removed and her publicist said she was considered “100 percent cancer free.”