FILE - Christy Carlson Romano attends 2024 FOX Winter Press Day at Fox Studio Lot on Nov. 18, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Andrew Toth/Getty Images)
Former Disney Channel star and podcast host, Christy Carlson Romano, revealed she received positive results after getting a cancer screening.
Romano, 41, shared in an emotional video on her Instagram account on Tuesday that her next steps were to get a PET scan and "hopefully it’s something easy to treat."
Both the "Even Stevens" actor and her husband, Brendan Rooney, got the screenings. Rooney’s results came back negative.
Family history of cancer
Big picture view:
Romano also shared in her video that both of her parents had cancer and her father eventually died from it.
Her maternal grandmother also died from lung cancer.
"Cancer is everywhere," Romano said. "Which is why I got this test."
Romano met with James Van Der Beek
Local perspective:
The former "Evens Stevens" actor also shared that since she lives in Austin, Texas, she was able to meet with the late James Van Der Beek and his family before his passing.
"He’s a pillar of our community in Texas," Romano said through tears.
The backstory:
Van Der Beek died last week after a battle with colorectal cancer. He was 48 years old. The "Dawsons’ Creek" actor shared that he was diagnosed with cancer in 2024.
What is a cancer screening?
Dig deeper:
A cancer screening checks for signs of cancer before symptoms start, according to the Cleveland Clinic. It’s basically a precautionary measure that people take to hopefully find the cancer early.
Screenings are done based on your age and cancer risk.
The U.S. Preventative Services Task Force sets screening guidelines for health care providers on when to recommend this type of testing.
The screenings do not check for every single type of cancer, and the task force actually only recommends screenings for people of average risk for the following types:
- Breast cancer
- Cervical cancer
- Colon cancer
- Lung cancer
- Oral cancer
- Prostate cancer
- Skin cancer
What they're saying:
"I’ve been fighting with companies to get that (cancer screenings) covered," Romano said.
Some cancer screenings are typically covered by insurance via the Affordable Care Act (ACA, also known as Obamacare), according to the American Cancer Society.
What you can do:
To better understand which screenings are available to you, check with your insurance provider.
The Source: Information for this article was taken from Christy Carlson Romano’s Instagram post on Feb. 17, 2026, the Cleveland Clinic and the American Cancer Society website. Previous reporting by LiveNOW from FOX also contributed. This story was reported from San Jose.