Edward James Olmos candidly shares near death experience with cancer

Edward James Olmos has opened up, for the first time, about his battle with throat cancer.

In an interview with the Mando & Friends podcast, the actor candidly revealed his diagnosis and said, "This would be the first time publicly I’ll be coming out and saying it, but I had throat cancer."

Sharing his ordeal, Olmos stated that he has since been fully treated and that he had concluded his chemotherapy session last year.

"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."

"I still have right here [on my throat] a bump where my lymph nodes, they burned them out because they shot this area with radiation," he added.

In the midst of his treatment, the singer also shared the risk he faced in the wake of his ailment, stating that doctors feared that he would not sound like his old self. 

"The doctors would say — I had five doctors — the doctors would say right before I started, 'There’s only one thing we have to tell you, we do not know what you’re gonna sound like,' " he said. "I said, 'What?!' 

Detailing his journey back to health, the Selena actor gave a graphic view of the treatments he went through and described it to be one that brought him "close to death". 

"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 said, adding, "A lot of my friends have passed because of this."

"There were times in the months that I was undergoing the treatments that the body gives up,"

"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. That was ridiculous, that was so hard.

"I’ve been through some experiences that have gotten me close to death, but that was close," he said.