'Mayans M.C.' Star Edward James Olmos Opens Up About His Struggles With Throat Cancer: 'The Experience Changed Me'

justjared.com:

Edward James Olmos is opening up about his battle with throat cancer. The 76-year-old actor, best known for his roles on Battlestar Galactica and Mayans M.C., was a featured guest on the Mando & Friends podcast, and got candid about his treatment and the struggles throughout the past year. Keep reading to find out more… Edward revealed that he finished up chemotherapy at the end of 2022. “This would be the first time publicly I’ll be coming out and saying it, but I had throat cancer,” he shared. “I just finished getting through it.

December 20 was my last radiation. The week before, I’d finished my chemo and [for] months and months I was on radiation and chemo as it attacked my throat.” Edward then shared that his doctors, all five of them that he consulted, told him that they didn’t know what he was going to sound like after the treatments. “‘We’re shooting your vocal cords.

We’re shooting your throat. Where you eat, where you swallow, where you talk, breathe, everything goes through here,’” he explained. “A lot of my friends have passed because of this.” Throughout his chemo, Edward also lost a lot of weight – 55 pounds. “There were times in the months that I was undergoing the treatments that the body gives up,” he shared. “And I didn’t want to take my food through my stomach.

They wanted to put tubes in and feed me nutrients because I couldn’t swallow. They had to get 2,500 calories into my body every day.