Last September we learned that Stanley Tucci had beaten cancer. His fight began three years ago after finding a tumor under his tongue. By the time they found the tumor, it was too big to remove, leading to a grueling treatment of radiation that barely allowed him to show up for his family. Now, cancer-free and happy to have that’s whole ordeal behind him, Stanley is shedding a little more light on his cancer-battle. Promoting his series Searching for Italy, he said he lived with acute pain in his jaw before his cancer was accurately diagnosed. And if the intense pain wasn’t bad enough, it made took away from one of his great loves: eating.
Stanley Tucci credits wife Felicity Blunt’s support as what helped him through one of the toughest times in his life.
In this week’s PEOPLE cover story, Tucci says that he counts himself “incredibly lucky” to be alive today.
The Oscar nominee was diagnosed with cancer at the base of his tongue back in 2017. He went through a 35-day radiation treatment plus seven sessions of chemotherapy, which ravaged his senses of taste and smell and left him unable to eat, dependent on a feeding tube.
Now, Tucci, 61, is cancer-free and living in London with his wife of 10 years Felicity (who is older sister to actress Emily Blunt) and enjoying his passion for cuisine on his CNN food and travel series Searching for Italy, back for season 2 this spring.
Tucci spent two years living with extreme pain in his jaw before his condition was accurately diagnosed.
“I had a scan, but the scan missed it. And of course, when you think that there might be something wrong, you’re also afraid that there is something wrong,” recalls Tucci, who lost his first wife Kate to breast cancer in 2009.
After seeing different doctors, The Devil Wears Prada actor was eventually correctly diagnosed as having a 3-centimeter tumor at the base of his tongue: “They couldn’t do surgery because the tumor was so big. It’s a miracle that it didn’t metastasize. It had been in me so long.”
When I first read Stanley’s story, I was under the impression that it was just something that he’d ignored. I didn’t realize this was the fault on the medical side. This could have killed Stanley. I get the scan missed the tumor, sometimes it’s a fluke. But if he was in excruciating pain for two years, that needed investigation. It’s possible Stanley didn’t push further because he said, “of course, when you think that there might be something wrong, you’re also afraid that there is something wrong.” But since the article pointed out that it was only after Stanley changed doctors that they found the issue, I’m inclined to think the doctor was the problem.
There’s another reason I wanted to talk about this. We constantly stress the importance of raising awareness for things on this blog. I’m the worst when it comes to seeking out a doctor. I’m not proud of that, I recognize it’s stupid of me. When I wrote the post about Stanley, I’d been dealing with some issue with my tongue. Normally I wouldn’t do anything but after working on that post, I saw an ENT and guess what – I had my tongue scraped of pre-cancerous cells. Now all three of my doctors are working together to figure out where they came from. It’s probably benign, but my GP said I absolutely avoided an issue down the road. All because Stanley and Michael Douglas told their harrowing stories. So if you hear something that sounds familiar, act on it.
Photo credit: Matt Holyoak/People
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pLHLnpmirJOdxm%2BvzqZmcG1naH10e9KtmKekla6stcHCnKCYoJGZrLXDzpiwnpmiqKywsr6jmLCXoJa2r6vBnp2oqpWUtaq%2Fvq2spqeilMSiv76doJqfnqTAprCO