Ben Stiller has revealed that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer two years ago.
The 50-year-old Hollywood star opened up about his diagnosis on The Howard Stern Show yesterday – and posted an essay about his experience on Medium.com just hours after.
“I got diagnosed with prostate cancer Friday, June 13th, 2014. On September 17th of that year I got a test back telling me I was cancer free. The three months in between were a crazy roller coaster ride with which about 180,000 men a year in America can identify,” Ben wrote.
“Right after I got the news, still trying to process the key words echoing dimly in my head (probability of survival–vival-vival-val…” “incontinence-nence-nence-ence…), I promptly got on my computer and Googled “Men who had prostate cancer.” I had no idea what to do and needed to see some proof this was not the end of the world.
“John Kerry… Joe Torre… excellent, both still going strong. Mandy Patinkin… Robert DeNiro. They’re vital. OK great. Feeling relatively optimistic, I then of course had to do one more search, going dark and quickly tapping in “died of” in place of “had” in the search window.
“As I learned more about my disease (one of the key learnings is not to Google “people who died of prostate cancer” immediately after being diagnosed with prostate cancer), I was able to wrap my head around the fact that I was incredibly fortunate,” he explained.
In the essay, Ben urges men to get tested at a younger age in order to be more treatable – as his decision to get checked before he turned 50 saved his life.
Lucky: Ben says the PSA test saved his life | 20TH CENTURY FOX
“Fortunate because my cancer was detected early enough to treat. And also because my internist gave me a test he didn’t have to. Taking the PSA test saved my life. Literally. That’s why I am writing this now.
“What I had — and I’m healthy today because of it — was a thoughtful internist who felt like I was around the age to start checking my PSA level, and discussed it with me.
“If I had waited, as the American Cancer Society recommends, until I was 50, I would not have known I had a growing tumor until two years after I got treated. If he had followed the US Preventive Services Task Force guidelines, I would have never gotten tested at all, and not have known I had cancer until it was way too late to treat successfully,” he added.
Read Ben’s full essay here.
