What Marcia Cross's Advocacy Can Help Us Understand About Anal Cancer and HPV

What she has said publicly

Marcia Cross, the actress best known for Desperate Housewives, has spoken about her anal cancer on the record several times.

She told CNN in June 2019 that the cancer was found during a routine digital rectal exam at a gynecologist visit. She had no symptoms. "I was so not thinking anything was wrong because I didn't have any symptoms," she said. Her doctor examined her, then told her that whatever it was, it was curable.

Cross said her husband, Tom Mahoney, had been diagnosed with throat cancer in 2009. Doctors suspect both cancers came from the same type of human papillomavirus, or HPV. She said she had completed radiation and chemotherapy, and that both she and her husband were in remission at that point.

At a Farrah Fawcett Foundation event in 2019 she was blunter about her reason for talking. "It's not particularly glamorous to be the face of anal cancer," she said. "We should all stop being embarrassed about it."

The HPV Cancers Alliance lists Cross as its co-founder and chairperson.

That is what is on the record. This page does not speculate about her health now.

What anal cancer is

Anal cancer starts in the anal canal, the short passage between the rectum and the outside of the body. The most common type is squamous cell carcinoma, which begins in the flat cells lining that canal.

It is uncommon. The American Cancer Society projects about 11,270 new diagnoses and 1,700 deaths in the United States in 2026, figures SEER republishes. SEER's own records put the median age at diagnosis at 65.

The HPV connection

HPV is a group of more than 200 related viruses. Some spread through vaginal, anal, or oral sex. NCI classes 12 types as high risk: HPV 16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56, 58, and 59. Types 16 and 18 account for most HPV-related cancers.

Most infections clear on their own within a year or two. The danger is persistence. When a high-risk infection lasts for years, it can drive cell changes that become precancerous and then cancerous.

NCI states that HPV infection is the main risk factor for anal cancer, and that about nine out of every ten anal cancers are found in people with anal HPV infection. The same virus family causes six cancers in total — anal, cervical, oropharyngeal, penile, vaginal, and vulvar. Our explainer on HPV and cancer covers how that works.

That is why one household can see two HPV-driven cancers in two different sites, as Cross has described.

A weakened immune system raises the risk further. NCI names HIV infection as a strong risk factor, and lists a previous cervical, vaginal, or vulvar cancer as raising risk too.

Prevention that actually works here

Gardasil 9 protects against nine HPV types, including the seven that cause most HPV-related cancers. NCI estimates the vaccine can prevent up to 90% of cancers caused by HPV.

Timing drives most of the benefit. The series is recommended at age 11 or 12 and can start at 9. Starting before 15 means two doses; starting at 15 or older means three. For anyone not vaccinated on schedule, NCI says vaccination is recommended up to age 26.

The vaccine has FDA approval through age 45, but NCI notes it is not routinely recommended for most people aged 27 to 45, because most have already been exposed. Our page on the HPV vaccine goes into the schedule in detail.

When to get checked

There is no population-wide screening program for anal cancer, so symptoms and exams do the work.

NCI says to check with a doctor about bleeding from the anus or rectum, a lump near the anus, pain or pressure around the anus, itching or discharge from the anus, or a change in bowel habits.

Those symptoms are far more often caused by hemorrhoids or a fissure, which is exactly why people delay. A doctor cannot tell the difference by description alone.

Anyone living with HIV, anyone who has had a cervical, vaginal, or vulvar cancer, and anyone who has had an organ transplant should raise anal cancer specifically with their clinician, because guidance for those groups is different.

What treatment involves

Anal cancer is one of the clearest successes of organ preservation in cancer care.

NCI's clinical summary says the standard of care for stage I, II, and III anal cancer is chemoradiation — external-beam radiation given together with chemotherapy. The usual combination is fluorouracil, often written 5-FU, plus mitomycin. Capecitabine with mitomycin, or 5-FU with cisplatin, are alternatives.

Surgery is not first. Radical resection is held back for people with an incomplete response or a recurrence. That operation, an abdominoperineal resection, removes the anus and rectum and requires a permanent colostomy. Avoiding it is the point of the chemoradiation approach.

NCI also notes that response can be slow, and that assessment is generally made after about 26 weeks because delayed responses happen. Follow-up includes a rectal exam every three months for the first two years. Our overview of anal cancer covers staging in more detail.

What the survival figures describe

Across all stages, five-year relative survival was 70.9% for people diagnosed from 2016 through 2022.

Stage matters. It runs 85.0% for cancer still confined to the anus, 70.1% once it has reached nearby lymph nodes, and 36.5% once it has spread to distant sites. Thirty-nine percent are found at the localized stage.

Tumor size and lymph node status are the two strongest prognostic factors, and NCI notes that tumors smaller than 2 cm do better.

These are group statistics from thousands of people diagnosed years ago. They set no expectation for any individual reader.

What to keep in perspective

Cross's diagnosis and treatment were hers. Nothing about her course predicts anyone else's, and she has not made claims about anyone else's.

Having HPV also does not mean a person will get cancer. Most infections clear. The cancers come from the small share that persist for years.

And a story like this cannot substitute for an exam. What it can do is make the appointment easier to book — which, for a cancer people are embarrassed to name, is not a small thing.

Sources

• CNN: Marcia Cross says her anal cancer is linked to HPV and husband's throat cancer
• Fox News: Marcia Cross on anal cancer awareness, HPV prevention
• HPV Cancers Alliance
• NCI PDQ: Anal Cancer Treatment (Health Professional Version)
• NCI: Anal Cancer Symptoms
• NCI: Anal Cancer Causes and Risk Factors
• NCI: HPV and Cancer
• NCI SEER Cancer Stat Facts: Anal Cancer

How this article was prepared

An AI-assisted editorial system helped prepare this page. No named medical reviewer has reviewed it unless one is listed.

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