Photo: Getty Images North America
Poison drummer Rikki Rockett says he is still cancer free seven years after being first diagnosed with oral cancer.
Rockett marked the occasion by sharing a photo of himself and his oncologist, Dr. Ezra Cohen, of the Translational Science at Moores Cancer Center in La Jolla, California.
"Almost 7 years cancer free thanks to the best Dr. in the world, Ezra Cohen," the drummer wrote. "Today is a good day!!! Thanks to God and modern medicine!"
Rockett was first diagnosed with HPV-related oral cancer in 2015 after visiting his primary care doctor, complaining of a sore throat. His doctor found a small tumor at the base of his tongue and Rockett quickly began treatment.
The tumor initially seemed to respond to chemotherapy and radiation therapy, but then spread to his lymph nodes after a few months. Rockett then sought out Cohen at UCSD Moores Cancer Center who helped him enroll in a clinical trial of a drug now called Keytruda.
Rockett says his chances of survival with conventional medicine were only about 10 percent, but his tumor responded almost immediately and shrunk over 90 percent in just over two months in the clinical trial.
"I felt not only like I was a miracle patient, but that my trial would help so many more people," he wrote in a 2021 post. "The [clinical trial was the] single greatest thing I have ever contributed to!"
Just over a year after his initial cancer diagnosis, Rockett was declared cancer-free in 2016. He undergoes regular screenings and has celebrated each negative test, as he did prior to heading out with Poison on the 'Stadium Tour' with Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard last spring.