James Van Der Beek selling 'Varsity Blues' merchandise to combat 'financial burden' of cancer

Neither fame nor fortune will make you immune to cancer. 

Actor James Van Der Beek, 47, knows this all too well.

"Each one personally autographed by me," he wrote in his Instagram caption. 

But he also shared that any profit made from the merchandise would go to help those impacted by cancer, himself included. "100% of my net proceeds will go to families recovering from the financial burden of cancer (including my own)," he wrote.

A representative for Van Der Beek did not immediately return Fox News Digital's request for more information on how proceeds would be allocated.

"There's no playbook for how [to] announce these things, but I'd planned on talking about it at length with People magazine at some point soon," the "Dawson's Creek" heartthrob wrote on Instagram. "To raise awareness and tell my story on my own terms. But that plan had to be altered early this morning when I was informed that a tabloid was going to run with the news."

Van Der Beek wrote that he'd been handling the matter "privately" and was "getting treatment and dialing in" his "overall health with greater focus than ever before."

Van Der Beek, who shares six children with wife Kimberly, told People that his view of cancer before being diagnosed was skewed. 

"I'd always associated cancer with age and with unhealthy, sedentary lifestyles. But I was in amazing cardiovascular shape. I tried to eat healthy - or as far as I knew it at the time," he explained.

"I thought maybe I needed to stop coffee," he shared. "Or maybe not put cream in the coffee. But when I cut that out and it didn't improve, I thought, 'All right, I better get this checked out.'"

"This has been a crash course in the mastery of mind, body, and spirit," he said.. "I thought, 'This is either going to take me out of the body, or it's going to teach me how to truly live in it.'"

"The trickiest thing is there are so many unknowns with cancer," he continued, opting not to share his treatment plan or current health status. "You think, 'How do I fix this? Is this healing me? Is this hurting me? Is this working? Is it coming back?' As someone who likes answers, not knowing is one of the hardest things."

But Van Der Beek added that he's "cautiously optimistic," and has "a lot to live for."