In an emotional post-scan update, Criscilla Anderson, who has stage 4 colon cancer, says her tumors have shrunk and her blood proteins — a cancer indicator — have dipped even lower. “I know this is my miracle,” says Anderson, a hip-hop dancer who has appeared in music videos with Katy Perry and Rihanna.
Read MoreThe Tumors Are Shrinking
The news about Anderson’s tumors was even better: “When your tumors go smaller than 5 millimeters, it's hard to measure if they've shrunk a tiny bit, because they’re already so small,” she explains. “So the radiologist marked them as ‘stable’.” But, she adds, when her doctor did measurements against her previous scan he had good news: “He goes 'wait, these have shrunk.'”
“The smallest one of all of them, he couldn't see,” she said, getting teary. “So, I'll take it. Because I know that God has healed me. And I know the next time I go in for another scan, they're going to be gone. I know this is my miracle. This is so great.” Anderson adds that she will continue her vegan, sugar-free diet.
“Treatable, Not Curable”
In November of 2019, her oncologist’s news was less positive: "I don't think it's curable,” he told the couple. “It's treatable, but not curable." She’d been first diagnosed at stage 3 in 2018. Her husband, Coffey Anderson, a country singer who has “made a living, not only on his sheer talent, but his addictive way of looking at the bright side of life,” was brought to tears by the news, PEOPLE reported in a 2019 profile of the couple.
"He never lets me see it," Criscilla she told PEOPLE. "He just tries to keep smiling." Earlier this year, the dynamic pair, who met in church and married a year later in 2009, had announced plans for a reality show based on their family life — and their cancer journey. Now, they are living under quarantine with another family, a decision that allows the couple to access emergency medical care for Criscilla, if needed, knowing that their children would remain safely at home, in the care of close friends.
Criscilla Anderson’s Cancer Diagnosis
Anderson first started noticing signs that someone was not right in May of 2018. Stomach pains would hit, leaving her doubled-over in pain. "As a mom, you always feel like you don't have the time to deal with things like this," says Anderson, who has three children. "But there came a point when I couldn't ignore it anymore."
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When the pains worsened, she went to the emergency room and was diagnosed with colitis. But a prescribed antibiotic didn’t help. "The whole time, I had been sharing my story on Instagram, and my girlfriend chimed in and told me that her dad was a GI doctor in Long Beach and that I should go see him," says Criscilla,. "By that time, I was in excruciating pain … It was bad." An emergency colonoscopy revealed a blockage, which landed her in the hospital for emergency surgery.
Dr. Heather Yeo, a surgical oncologist at Weill Cornell Medical College says, “We still get cures, even in stage 4 colon cancer patients, which I think is really exciting.”
Doctors removed a two-foot length of her colon. The dignosis: stage 3 colon cancer. After a brief remission, she returned to Instagram with an update: “The cancer has spread throughout my para-aortic region and has begun growing up my back," she says of her current Stage 4 metastatic colon cancer diagnosis.
"My ultimate goal is to be in remission and have it not be chronic but be in a situation where it can be completely healed. The ideal, if that cannot happen, would be to keep it maintained and have it not spread any further for the rest of my life."
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