Actor Stanley Tucci says he overcame tongue cancer, after long treatments, 3 years ago

Screen and television star Stanley Tucci has disclosed —- three years after the fact —— that he beat cancer following long, difficult treatments. 

The tumor was at the base of his tongue and originally "too big to operate" on.

Stanley Tucci

An online story by Cole Delbyck in yesterday's Huffpost maintains that the 60-year-old Tucci had undergone intensive treatments for approximately half a year — including chemotherapy and high-dose radiation that apparently killed the malignancy and made it unlikely that it could return.

Delbyck's story indicates that Tucci feels "much older than I did before I was sick. But you still want to get ahead and get things done.”

The actor's disclosure, which appeared in Vera magazine last week, indicates that cancer "makes you more afraid and less afraid at the same time.”

Tucci's now the star of his eponymous CNN food-and-travel series, "Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy," after having honed his culinary skills and developed a following. The show, which earned multiple Emmy Award nominations, has been renewed for a second season.

Tucci's first wife, Kate Spath-Tucci, died of breast cancer in 2009 at age 47. Afterwards, he vowed that he'd never go through chemo and radiation because watching "her go through those treatments for years was horrible," he told Delbyck.

Clearly, he changed his mind.

The Huffpost article points out that he had also been "particularly concerned with how his diagnosis would affect his five children.” The actor has three children from his first marriage and shares a son and daughter with his current wife, Felicity Blunt, sister of his 'Devil Wears Prada' co-star Emily Blunt.

Delbyck's piece quotes the actor as saying that the "kids were great, but it was hard for them. I had a feeding tube for six months. I could barely make it to the twins' high school graduation."

Earlier this year, the article notes, Tucci spoke in an "CBS Sunday Morning" interview about his late wife and noted that "you never stop grieving. It's still hard. And it will always be hard [but she] would never want any of us to ever wallow intuit grief and let it take over our lives. She would never want that. She wasn't like that."

Tucci in recent years has appeared in three films, including the gay romance, "Supernova," in which he co-starred with Colin Firth as a man battling early onset dementia.

Additional information about diseases and their treatments can be found in “Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner’s breast cancer,” a book I, Woody Weingarten, aimed at male caregivers.

Are younger men shunning intercourse?

Men's oral cancer risk leaps 61 percent in four years — because of a shift in sexual habits

The risk of oral cancer in men has jumped dramatically.

Insurance claims from "a database of more than 21 billion privately billed medical and dental claims" show the reasons, according to an article this week by Ariana Eunjung Cha in The Washington Post.

With one of the main causes being "the cascading effect of human papillomavirus (HPV) in the United States."

The American Cancer Society has estimated some 50,000 Americans will be infected this year, with 9,500 dying from the disease.

The Post story, citing a report published by FAIR Health, disclosed that the increase in oral cancer from 2011 to 2015 was a startling 61 percent.

With the biggest increases coming in throat and tongue cancers.

During the period studied, those cancers were three times as prevalent in men as women, the Post piece noted.

In the past, oral cancer was linked mainly to smoking, alcohol use or a combination.

Now, the Post article maintained, changing sexual habits are a problem, with surveys showing "younger men are more likely to perform oral sex than their older counterparts and have a tendency to engage with more partners."

Dr. Gypsyamber D'Souza

According to Gypsyamber D'Souza, PhD., an associate professor in the Viral Oncology and Cancer Prevention and Control Program at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health quoted by the Post, "These differences in sexual behavior…explain…why the rate of this cancer is increasing."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this month recommended preteens 11 or 12 get vaccinated against HPV, noting that more teenagers and young adults "are engaging in oral sex than vaginal intercourse under the assumption that it's safer."

It's not, of course, unless only the possibility of pregnancy is being considered.

Information about disease prevention can be found in "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer," a VitalityPress book I, Woody Weingarten, aimed at male caregivers.