After having enchanted millions of viewers in the iconic series
Desperate Housewives
, the American actress Marcia Cross, 60, has embraced another role in spite of herself, that of spokesperson for a disease that is still very taboo: cancer of the stomach. anus (also called rectal cancer).
It was in 2017 that the actress contracted this disease, which is still little known and which affects around 1,000 people each year in France, according to the Institut Curie.
Passing through Lille for the Series Mania festival on Tuesday March 21, the sexagenarian now in remission, publicly spoke about her experience at a conference and assured her desire to destigmatize this cancer.
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“Who has an anus in the room?”
“It's not a cancer that is easy to talk about, Marcia Cross immediately concedes to her audience.
I didn't dare say it.
No one wants to be the mouthpiece for anal cancer”.
In November 2017, the American actress learned during a routine gynecological check-up that she suffered from this disease, caused here by the papillomavirus, which also affected her husband, who had throat cancer.
Marcia Cross chose humor to tell her story.
"It's all the same crazy, I play the role of a psychorigid woman, and I catch the worst cancer in the world", underlines with irony the one who played on the small screen Bree, the WASP (for Anglo-Saxon white and Protestant) par excellence.
“Who has an anus in the room?
We don't dare talk about the anus, but me… I can talk about the anus for hours, because I'm very happy to have one and it's fine,” sums up the actress.
Thanks to an early diagnosis, her cancer could be quickly treated and today she no longer shows any signs of the disease.
Detected early, this disease is effectively cured 9 times out of 10, confirms the National Cancer Institute on its site.
Symptoms you shouldn't ignore
Aware of her luck, Marcia Cross intends to seize every opportunity to make her public aware of this cancer from now on.
"I would like to say that I was brave to talk about it but, in fact, I had no choice," she says, before stressing the importance of getting tested by the doctor.
On its platform, the National Cancer Institute recalls the symptoms which should alert: the presence of blood in the stool, abdominal and/or anal pain, the detection of a mass on palpation of the abdomen or digital rectal examination, and unexplained deterioration in general condition.
Age also increases the risk.
According to the health organization, 9 out of 10 people affected are over 50 years old.
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