Stanley Tucci has opened up about his cancer battle, explaining how chemotherapy and the subsequent loss of taste lead him to lose over 2st.
The actor has kept his cancer diagnosis private until last month when he revealed that doctors discovered a tumour at the base of his tongue three years ago.
The star is now fully recovered and revealed the tumour is unlikely to come back.
Appearing on Good Morning America to present his new memoir, Taste: My Life Through Food, the 60-year-old said described his cancer battle as ‘devastating’.
He also explained how because of the size of his tumour, doctors were unable to operate to remove it.
‘So the only available treatment was high-dose radiation and chemotherapy, but ‘luckily the cure rate is very high’, Tucci continued.
The therapy left him unable to eat solid food for six months. Tucci shared that he also lost over two stone, and his taste buds and saliva glands were destroyed alongside the inside of his mouth.
‘It’s taken really three years to get back to almost normal,’ said Tucci.
‘That said, it’s a small price to pay for being alive and being able to enjoy the company of my family.’
Tucci’s first wife Kathryn Spath and mother of three of his children also contracted cancer and died of a breast tumour in 2009.
The actor has not let his cancer diagnosis get in the way of his career and he has been more successful than ever in recent years.
Among his upcoming projects is Inside Man, a BBC drama written by Steven Moffat about a prisoner on death row and a woman trapped in a cellar crossing paths.
Tucci stars alongside Doctor Who’s David Tennant, Dracula’s Dolly Wells and It’s a Sin’s Lydia West.
On the big screen, he will next be seen in The King’s Man this Christmas season.
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