Marcia Cross, 58, has recently shared an update after undergoing treatments for anal cancer in order to end the stigma around the condition.
Cross received the anal cancer diagnosis in November 2017 after a routine gynecological checkup, followed by a colonoscopy and two biopsies.
The Desperate Housewives star had to undergo 28 sessions of radiotherapy and two weeks of chemotherapy.
She told Coping With Cancer, “The side effects are so gnarly. I’m really happy with people that were really honest about it because doctors like to play it down since they don’t want you to freak out.”
Cross said she “read a lot online” and also turned to the Anal Cancer Foundation website, revealing, “they were pretty specific about things. So, I was kind of ready for what was to come.”
The actress said she experienced side effects such as pain, gastric problems, mouth sores, and skin issues. After her first chemo, she thought she was doing well, but “out of nowhere,” she felt an “excruciating” sting in her lip.
She said, “It was from the chemo. So I did learn after that to be proactive and get ahead of things because I thought, ‘I don’t need that rinse, or these drugs, or whatever,’ and then I found myself in the thick of it, and I had gastric problems, mouth sores, all the terrible things that can happen with chemotherapy… It’s certainly not fun.”
The type of anal cancer Cross had been suffering from was more likely related to HPV (human papillomavirus).
“She had the same viral strain of HPV that likely caused her husband Tom Mahoney’s throat cancer, for which he received treatment in 2009,” according to PEOPLE.
In June 2019, Cross told CBS This Morning that she did everything she could to encourage people to get vaccinated against HPV.
The CDC says HPV causes more than 90% of anal cancers. The virus can also cause cancers of the cervix, genitals, and throat, which can be transmitted through sex or skin-to-skin contact.
Cross has been in remission for over two years, but her recovery was challenging.
“I’m very lucky, but it does take a while for your body to kind of get back to normal,” she told Coping with Cancer. “I say the new normal is that I am more sensitive of what I eat and take better care of myself and my diet.”
Cross plans to destigmatize anal cancer. She said, “I wasn’t interested in becoming the anal cancer spokesperson. I wanted to move on with my career and my life.”
However, she found that people were keeping their diagnosis secret out of shame and embarrassment. She also found that “doctors were not comfortable talking about it,” and women were not receiving adequate care they required.
The Always Say Goodbye star said, “They weren’t told things like your vagina could develop scar tissue, which it does. And you have to do things afterward to take care of yourself. I just saw how, oh my gosh, we are so behind on all of this because it’s our anuses!”
“I’m a big fan of the anus… I just have a lot of respect for this tiny, little two inches that makes our lives livable and pleasant,” she continued. “I really think to destigmatize it is the way to go. It’s just silly… We all have one. It’s nothing to be embarrassed or ashamed of.”
Rather, Cross has been seeing her anal cancer as a gift, “because it does change you” and “it does wake you up to how precious every day is.”
“I take nothing for granted, nothing,” she added. “Just as we are seeing right now [with the COVID-19 pandemic], our entire world just changed on a dime.” The article was originally published in Health.
