NEW YORK — Farrah Fawcett is being treated for anal cancer that has spread to her liver and has been hospitalized for a complication from a routine treatment, a producer who worked with the actress and her doctor said Monday.
In separate phone interviews with The Associated Press, Fawcett’s producer and her doctor said Fawcett is in a Los Angeles hospital, recovering from complications from a medical procedure in Germany, and is “not on death’s door,” as the producer put it.
“She had a minor procedure. That procedure led to a small amount of bleeding into a muscle in her abdominal wall,” which created a hematoma — a sac of blood that caused pressure and pain, said her Los Angeles cancer specialist, Dr. Lawrence Piro.
It was “a simple procedure” and a standard one, although Fawcett has also pursued experimental treatments in Germany, he added.
“She’s on the mend and will be going home very shortly,” said her producer, Craig Nevius. “She’s doing fantastic. Her fight goes on. . . . She’s not going anywhere anytime soon.”
However, confirmation that the cancer had spread to such a distant site was dire news.
The 62-year-old Charlie’s Angels star was diagnosed with anal cancer in 2006, and originally was treated at The Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center with chemotherapy and radiation — not surgery as some have reported, Nevius said.
She was declared in remission on Feb 2, 2007, but three months later, scans showed “not only had it recurred, it metastasized to her liver,” Nevius said.
The latest treatment in Germany tried to address the cancer’s spread to that organ, he said.
Nevius would not say where in Germany she was being treated, just that it was a clinic affiliated with some hospitals. He also would not give details on her treatments there, but said media reports that she was getting stem cell treatments were false.
An upcoming documentary on which Fawcett has worked for several years, A Wing and a Prayer, co-produced with Nevius and others, will air on NBC soon and give details, he said.