Hollywood actor Stanley Tucci has said radiation treatment for cancer ‘burned out’ his thyroid and left him feeling ‘completely exhausted’.
The US star, 64, received high-dose radiation and chemotherapy after a tumour was found at the base of his tongue in 2017.
In 2024, several years after his cancer treatment, he noticed his energy levels were depleting while he was filming in Italy for a TV show.
Appearing on David Tennant Does A Podcast With… he said: ‘I would be so tired in the afternoon, like completely exhausted by one o’clock, and I was like, “Something’s wrong with me.”
‘Finally, when it was all over, or just before the last one (episode), I had a blood test, and I was like, “I know something’s f***ing wrong with me”.’
‘My thyroid was non-functioning,’ he told the podcast.
The thyroid is a small butterfly-shaped gland in the neck near the windpipe that produces hormones affecting heart rate and body temperature.
Having too much or too little of these hormones can cause symptoms that may need treatment, according to the NHS.
He continued: ‘I was like, what is it? Is it stress? ‘Cause you can have them from stress and whatever.
‘I was like, I don’t know what’s happening, and they kept saying, “Your cholesterol level’s really high.”
‘I was like, why? It doesn’t make any f***ing sense, and what happened was because I had radiation six, seven years ago; it burned out my thyroid.’
Stanley proceeded to explain that he had only recently talked to his oncologist in New York about the matter, who told him that ‘sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn’t’.
He was informed that it is caused by the radiation, having feared initially that it was ‘some hideous thing’ or something genetic.
‘Then you take this pill, which is basically Synthroid… I’m getting another blood test because I think I might have to up it a bit,’ he revealed.
Stanley admitted that he ‘still gets tired in the afternoon’ and sometimes feels that he ‘can’t think or move’.
Thankfully, taking the medication has made a ‘huge difference’, but he’s still hopeful of getting ‘back to where [he] was’.
‘It is normal and especially now I’ve just turned 64. I mean, there are times I don’t want to do f***ing anything.’
The NHS website says an underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism), where the gland does not produce enough hormones, can lead to tiredness, weight gain, and sensitivity to the cold, which can be treated by the patient taking daily hormone tablets.
Damage to the thyroid during treatments for an overactive thyroid or thyroid cancer can cause hypothyroidism.
When the thyroid gland produces too much of the thyroid hormones, this is called hyperthyroidism and symptoms include mood swings, tiredness, trembling, and weight loss.
In 2021, Stanley told BBC One’s The One Show that he was ‘very afraid to do the treatments, but [he] had no option’.
‘I had to eat through a feeding tube for six months,’ he confessed.
Stanley, best known for appearing in the films The Devil Wears Prada and The Hunger Games, was widowed in 2009 when his wife Kathryn (Kate) Spath died from breast cancer.
The Conclave star is now married to Felicity Blunt, sister of his The Devil Wears Prada co-star Emily Blunt.
Stanley appeared on David Tennant Does A Podcast With… which is available on Spotify now.
Macmillan cancer support
If you or someone you care about has been diagnosed with cancer, Macmillan can offer support and information.
You can contact their helpline on 0808 808 00 00 (7 days a week from 8am to 8pm), use their webchat service, or visit their site for more information.
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