20 Years of The Osbournes
- Sharon, Jack, and Kelly Osbourne took to Instagram to mark the anniversary of the premiere of their reality television show, The Osbournes.
- The show premiered 20 years ago and ran for four seasons before ending in March 2005.
- It followed the family through pivotal moments in their lives, including an ATV accident that almost took Ozzy's life, and Sharon's battle with colorectal cancer in 2002.
The latest? It’s been 20 years since the Osbourne family became the first heavy metal dynasty to take over reality television. The hit series debuted in March 2002 and ran for four seasons. It was during this groundbreaking show that Sharon opened up about her colon cancer battle, and by doing so raised awareness for the disease.
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Kelly Osbourne, 37, shared her own post as well. She posted a still from the reality show's title sequence, along with two family portraits showing off some of her and her brother's most extreme hairstyles (Kelly with dark red spikes and a Jack with a bleached Mohawk). "It was 20 years ago today that #TheOsbournes first aired on @mtv," she wrote. "Fuck I'm old!!! Where does the time go?" 36-year-old Jack Osbourne added Kelly's post to his Instagram story, writing "You and me both!"
Sharon Osbourne and Her Colon Cancer Journey
Sharon was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2002. Husband Ozzy was at her side as she battled the disease, and cheered her up in small ways during that challenging time. She underwent three months of chemotherapy to treat her disease, and it was effective. Now, Sharon is cancer-free, and her energy for life after cancer is so inspiring.
Related: When Colon Cancer Comes Back: Understanding the Options
Chemotherapy, which Sharon had, is one of several methods used to treat this disease. Other colon cancer treatments include radiation, surgery and immunotherapy.
“If colon cancer is caught before it spreads outside of the colon (stage one or stage two), the cancer can sometimes be cured with surgery,” Dr. Zuri Murrell, a colorectal surgeon at Cedars-Sinai, explains in an earlier interview. “It is important to continue to follow up with your doctor even if your cancer is cured to make sure that it doesn't come back,” he says.
Monitoring After Surgery for Colon Cancer
Colon Cancer Screenings
Colon cancer is typically detected via colonoscopy. Dr. Murrell explains that during a colonoscopy, the doctor is looking for polyps, which can turn into cancer. He explains the process, saying, "People often ask me, what do you do when you have a colonoscopy? What's done? Do you do biopsies? So a colonoscopy can be done for many things. But when we're looking at a colonoscopy for colorectal cancer screening, what we do is we're looking for polyps, which are these small growths."
"When we see a polyp, we actually physically take the polyp out through the colonoscope,” says Dr. Murrell. “What does that mean? That means we basically put a wire through with a little bit of a little flange at the end and we pull the polyp out. Now, note there is no pain with that. Inside the colon, there are no pain fibers. So there's no pain. What happens is then when we take the polyp out, we send that to a lab. In about five to 10 business days, we get the results back."
The American Cancer Society and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommend that beginning at age 45, patients with average risk of colon cancer undergo a colonoscopy every 10 years. However, more frequent colonoscopies are recommended if a polyp is found during the screening.
Looking for Polyps During Colonoscopy
Contributing: Anne McCarthy
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