Actress Marcia Cross is “ecstatically alive” and healthy after a previously undisclosed battle with cancer.
The “Desperate Housewives” star recently revealed on Instagram that she’d been diagnosed with anal cancer, but is currently in recovery.
Cross, 56, first offered a hint that something was wrong in a Sept. 15 post in which she mourned the loss of her hair.
“So grateful and happy to be alive but sad that my hair fell out and is about 1 inch long now and looks cra cra,” she wrote. “Anyone else have #hairloss due to #cancer? Talk to me. I feel you.”
After an outpouring of support from fans, she clarified one day later that she was actually in recovery, and was not still battling the disease.
“I am POST cancer. All good now. Hard journey, but I am HEALTHY, happy, and more present and grateful than ever,” she wrote.
Cross again followed up to share how “liberated, deliriously free and complete me” she felt after taking her fight public, and said that her diagnosis had changed her entire outlook on life.
“I am ecstatically alive and what interests me post cancer is authenticity, vulnerability, transparency, and of course love,” she wrote. “On that note, if you were wondering, I had anal cancer. I know, right?!”
The star signed off on the post with a thank you to her fans for empathizing with her by sharing their own stories of cancer and hair loss.
Anal cancer is a relatively rare type of cancer, with the risk of being diagnosed just one in 500, according to the American Cancer Society. By comparison, one in 22 men and one in 24 women get colon cancer, while women have a one in 8 chance of developing breast cancer.
There are several different types of anal cancers, though most are squamous cell carcinomas, which begin in the cells that line the anal canal and the anal margin.
Cross, who recently appeared in a recurring role as President Claire Haas on “Quantico,” has a pair of 11-year-old twin daughters with husband Tom Mahoney, whom she married in 2006.
Mahoney dealt with his own cancer battle in 2009, though he has since recovered.
