Luke Perry Opens Up About His Brush With Cancer

By Linda Rodgers Updated: March 28, 2017

If you catch it early enough, colon cancer has a five-year survival rate of 90 percent. That’s pretty high for any type of cancer. The catch of course is catching it early. Many people who have the highest risk (people ages 50+) put off getting a colonoscopy, and some experts have suggested that half of all colon cancer deaths could have been prevented if only people had done some sort of routine screening.

Luckily, Luke Perry did–at age 49. The Beverly Hills 90210 actor thought the test was going to be routine, but the colonoscopy showed that he had tumors growing–the first sign of colon cancer. He had them removed, but didn’t forget his brush with cancer.

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So now he’s urging people to get screened. As he told Fox News, “‘Right now, there are 23 million Americans who haven’t been screened who need to be screened. If I had waited, it could have been a whole different scenario.”

As Perry pointed out, he couldn’t figure out why colon cancer was the most detectable of cancers, yet one of the deadliest. “So I wanted to get out there and tell people about it.”

He’s partnering with an organization called Fight Colorectal Cancer to make sure 100 percent of people eligible for colon cancer screening get tested.

via DailyMail.co.uk

NEXT: See the celebrities who’ve had similar or worse cancer scares–and survived!

Edie Falco

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Edie Falco: Breast cancer, 2004 Falco kept her treatment a secret from her Sopranos co-stars. “Surviving cancer has a way of making you re-prioritize," she's said. In her case, it meant starting a family.
Kathy Bates

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Kathy Bates: Ovarian cancer, 2003; breast cancer, 2012 The actress kept her cancer a secret but after her double mastectomy, she told People magazine: "Breast cancer runs like a river through my family.
Fran Drescher

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Fran Drescher: Uterine cancer, 2000 It took two years and eight doctors before the Nanny star was finally diagnosed. After the experience, she wrote a book and started a cancer foundation.
Rod Stewart

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Rod Stewart: Thyroid cancer, 2000 The rock icon got lucky when his cancer was discovered during a routine scan. He lost his voice for three weeks, and now sings an octave lower than he used to.
Carly Simon

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Carly Simon: Breast cancer, 1997 After a lumpectomy and chemotherapy, the singer told the New York Daily News she was "stronger than ever. I've always thought of myself as a warrior."
Sheryl Crow

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Sheryl Crow: Breast cancer, 2006 The singer, then 44, had just broken up with Lance Armstrong when doctors discovered a tumor. After treatment, she adopted two boys.
Sharon Osbourne

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Sharon Osbourne: Colon cancer, 2002 The reality TV star had one foot of her colon removed. After discovering she carried the gene for breast cancer, she had a double mastectomy.
Hugh Jackman

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Hugh Jackman: Skin cancer, 2013, 2016 Jackman was filming X Men when a makeup artist pointed to a red mark on his nose. It turned out to be basal cell carcinoma. He now gets skin checks every three months.
Robert De Niro

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Robert De Niro: Prostate cancer, 2003 De Niro, then 60, credited his complete recovery to early detection.
Christina Applegate

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Christina Applegate: Breast cancer, 2008 The actress was only 36, but she had the BRCA gene mutation--her mom was a breast cancer survivor. She opted for a double mastectomy.
Michael C Hall

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Michael C. Hall: Hodgkin's lymphoma, 2010 Hall used a break during Dexter to go through treatment. Getting a Golden Globe two-thirds through it gave him a "shock of positive energy."

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