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Marcia Cross, 57, best known for her work on Desperate Housewives, has been open and honest about her anal cancer diagnosis. The good news is that she announced last September that she’s healthy and in recovery after receiving treatment. She’s now working to raise awareness and reduce the stigma around anal cancer. In an interview with CBS this Morning, Marcia reveals that both her cancer and her husband’s throat cancer have been caused by HPV, a very common sexually transmitted virus for which there is now a vaccine. HPV is also the main cause of cervical cancer. Here’s what she told CBS, you can see that interview on YouTube below:
Why she wants to talk about it
I know that there are people who feel ashamed. You have cancer, do you also have to feel ashamed because it took up residence in your anus? Really there’s enough on your plate.How would Bree would handle the diagnosis?
She wouldn’t have told a soul. Many people [are like that]. Breaks my heart.Her annual rectal exam saved her life
Lots of things in life are not fun. You can bear it.She has a supportive group of friends
I have a bevy of girlfriends. I call them my anal angels. I kept saying if this doesn’t kill me it’s the best thing that could have ever happened because the experience of being loved like that blew my mind.How she feels now
I feel back to normal. I don’t think I’ll ever take it for granted. I’m the girls who goes to the bathroom now [and] I’m so grateful.
[From CBS This Morning via People]
HPV can be spread sexually and through skin to skin contact. In 2009 Marcia’s husband, stockbroker Tom Mahony, was diagnosed with throat cancer and underwent treatment. I think he’s in remission now but they didn’t specify. On CBS they mentioned that the same type of HPV that gave Tom throat cancer can also cause anal cancer. They stopped short of claiming that both their cancers were caused by the same strain, but it was implied that they’re related. Marcia and Tom have twin 12-year-old daughters, Eden and Savannah, and Marcia told CNN that she was so grateful to have been alive to see them graduate. They’re scheduled to get their first HPV vaccination soon. The HPV vaccine can prevent this kind of cancer, but they mentioned on CBS that only 50% of adolescents are getting it. My son got this vaccination recently. His doctor highly recommended it after having seen two cases of men with throat cancer from HPV. F-k cancer and get vaccinated. Also get pelvic and rectal exams every year. One saved Marcia Cross’s life.
photos credit: Getty, WENN and via Instagram
It’s also important to point out that there are different types of HPV and not all of them are an STD. It’s important to get a pap every single year and ultrasounds. Not every HPV is equal and causes cancer or is sexually transmitted.
I got my HPV vaccine at a later age (in Argentina it’s mandatory, and free, for boys and girls aged 11 years old) because I was not sexually active yet and I’m glad I did.
One of the medical groups or agencies (AMA or the CDC) in the past few years put out guidelines for pelvic exams that said you only need them once every 3 years I think. IIRC, the rationale was that cervical cancer was treatable and very slow growing.
Yes re: vaccination as an adult! The vaccine is approved for people up to age 45 and is worth it, even if you’ve already been infected.
No re: annual pap smears. Clinical guidelines recommend testing every 3-5 years, depending on your age, to reduce harms from overscreening/false positives.
Thank you! I am going to a doctor soon and will ask about the vaccine as I’m under 45!
THIS! Some strains of HPV can be passed through casual contact, even from something simple like sharing a glass or eating utensils. Not all strains cause cancer, but there is some evidence that being infected with multiple HPV strains makes it harder to fight off the strains that can cause genital warts and cancer.
Ironically, I just got my second Gardasil shot today. Even though I have been fighting cervical cancer for more than ten years already, my oncologist thought it might help boost my immune system. At worst, I will have some short term arm pain.
My mother was a puritanical Christian who didn’t want me to get the HPV vaccine before I went to college (it was on the recommended vaccine list). I’ll never forget the nurse who distracted her with some “insurance paperwork” and talked to me about the benefits and quickly and quietly vaccinated me. I hadn’t been sexually active at that point, and I’m always grateful that she took the time to educate me on my health and give me a say in my own treatment.
That nurse is a hero. I can’t believe there is a ~vaccine that can prevent cancer~ and people let their religious views get in the way of their children receiving it. WTF.
and especially since, duh, girls don’t always choose when they have sex. (oh, and Puritanical views won’t save them from the threat of rape).
This!! My mother also forbade me from getting this vaccine as in her freaky deaky Pentecostal views it was akin to admitting to be a complete sl*t. Here’s the rub: growing up with such views rammed down my throat just made me want to act out sexually first chance I got. And I did. In risky situations that were stupid of me to get into.
I plan on educating my daughter better.
She is really brave to come forward with this. I agree that certain kinds of cancer have more stigma than others. I would guess that breast cancer, which everyone talks about openly now, once fell into that category. She is doing a very good thing by raising public awareness.
I got my son vaccinated as soon as it was available to him. He was 12. It wasnât to prepare him for sex, it was to protect him when he is ready. Boys are the carriers. To me, itâs my duty as a mother to protect my children and others from whatâs out there.
You are a great mom and steward of humanity. The apple will not fall far from the tree. Blessings to you and your family!
On a totally shallow note, she hasnât aged at all and looks fantastic. Props to her for being so vocal about this!
Totally agree on both fronts.
KATE D, you can assume whatever you want but they probably have zero idea every detail on how they got it. This comment made me roll my eyes so hard. đ lol
I got mine when I was 25 or 26. Very, very late, but it had just become available. No brainer.
Gardasil was pretty new when I got it about 12 years ago. Being anti-vax wasn’t really a thing back then so I was shocked when one of my very “active” girlfriends refused to get it and thought I was crazy for getting “chemicals” injected into me (that’s how she phrased it back then). This was around the same time as the swine flu situation and she got very sick after getting the swine flu vaccine so she was opposed to getting any other voluntary vaccines after that. She also insisted she didn’t need it because she was always careful, which we both knew wasn’t true.
A year later she had pre-cancerous cells on her cervix caused by HPV that had to be scraped off. She said the procedure was very painful. She ended up getting the vaccine after that. There was no “I told you so” moment because I really was sad she went through a cancer scare in her early 20s and happy she got the vaccine for her own well-being. If she hadn’t caught it sooner she could have had full-blown cervical cancer that would have required much more invasive treatment, which all could be avoided with a few injections in the arm. So, moral of this story: Anti-vax bad, HPV vaccine good.
Very brave of her to step up and do this.
Her comment about seeing her 12 year old twins graduate puzzled me. Are they child prodigies?
Didn’t watch much of Desperate Housewives, but loved her as the b*tch Kimberly on Melrose Place!
I assumed she meant that since they caught her cancer early and sheâs now in recovery, sheâs going to be alive able to watch her kids grow up and graduate. Whereas if she hadnât been having her checkups, it wouldâve been missed until potentially too late andcsged have missed everything.
I could be wrong though, and they may totally be preteen prodigies!
Middle schoolers still have graduations, right???
The girls are starting high school.
THIS. So important. Iâm 32 and just got my first gardasil vaccine. Itâs hella pricey ( even though I am a nurse workin on an oncology unit), but worth it.
How much was it?
so here goes…
I got HPV as teen out of hs before there was a gardsil and had precancerous cells on my cervix for year to be monitored in 6mo increments.STRESSFUL, biopsies etc…..When they told my 18yo self i cried so hard and thought no one would love me or want to be with me and that i couldnt have kids in the future…. so i researched immune boosting stuff, oil of oregano, acupuncture, vitamin c etc, changed my diet….after a few years of diet and close monitoring everything reversed and caner cell free….
But my during last doctor monitoring visit (in my 20s)during that time I got the vaccine really in a distracted moment and didnt want to get it. The nurse was congratulating me on my reversal of prognosis and then popped the needle in my arm… i felt off and nauseous for about a week. IDK what that was about but it was what it was.
i think get vaccinated if you feel its what suits you but for me i had to tough it out and that’s what worked for me.
How terrible for their family, for both parents to go through cancer. Glad they are doing ok now.
On Wednesday I am going in for a LEEP procedure to cut out pieces of my cervix (with an electrified wire) that may be cancerous and it is absolutely related to HPV. I have one of the cancer strains that the vaccine prevents. The WORST part about this is that I kept missing the cut off for the vaccine by a few years. When it first came out I was a few years âtoo oldâ and by the time they raised the age limit I was too old again. Get vaccinated if you can. Get it for your kids. Both of my daughters have gotten it.