Ben Stiller Reveals He Has Been Battling Cancer For The Past Two Years
Actor Ben Stiller has just revealed that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer two years ago. Speaking on The Howard Stern Show on Tuesday, October 4, Stiller opened up about his battle with the disease for the first time.
“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.”
So, I had cancer a couple of years ago and I wanted to talk about it. And the test that saved my life. https://t.co/KWirBcRZ7D
— Ben Stiller (@BenStiller) October 4, 2016
Stiller is now reportedly cancer-free but he says he is still getting tested regularly. Stiller also talked about why he had finally decided to open up about his battle with prostate cancer.
“I wanted to talk about it because of the [PSA] test… I feel like the test saved my life.”
A PSA (Prostate-Specific Antigen) test is a blood test that helps identify prostate cancer in males. The test works by measuring the amount of PSA, which is an antigen released by cancerous and non-cancerous tissues in the prostate, in the patient’s blood.
Stiller told Stern that the first thing he did when he was diagnosed was call up his closest friends, including his Meet the Fockers co-star Robert De Niro, who himself had battled with prostate cancer many years ago.
“The first thing I did when I got diagnosed was get on the internet to try to learn. I saw De Niro had had it. I called him right away.”
Stiller spoke up about how he had initially reacted to the diagnosis.
“It came out of the blue for me. I had no idea. At first, I didn’t know what was gonna happen. I was scared. It just stopped everything in your life because you can’t plan for a movie because you don’t know what’s gonna happen.”
Ben also spoke about how he broke the news to his children, daughter Ella, 14, and son Quinlin, 11. He says that he just told them that there was something he had to deal with and that the kids were “pretty cool with it.”
Following his interview with Howard Stern, Ben Stiller published a heart-melting statement on Medium, where he explains how he dealt with the diagnosis and how the PSA test saved his life. The 50-year old says he now wants to spread awareness about the disease among other young males, urging them to get tested as soon as possible.
“Taking the PSA test saved my life. Literally. That’s why I am writing this now. There has been a lot of controversy over the test in the last few years. Articles and op-eds on whether it is safe, studies that seem to be interpreted in many different ways, and debates about whether men should take it all. I am not offering a scientific point of view here, just a personal one, based on my experience. The bottom line for me: I was lucky enough to have a doctor who gave me what they call a ‘baseline’ PSA test when I was about 46.”
Stiller says that there is no history of prostate cancer in his family and that he wasn’t even a part of the so-called high-risk group for the disease (African or Scandinavian ancestry). Ben writes that although he had absolutely no symptoms, he ended up with the disease anyway, thus urging other young men to get tested too as soon as possible.
Ben writes that after several tests spread out over months and the opinions of multiple doctors, he found out that the tumor had to be taken out at all costs. He underwent a successful surgery and has been in recovery ever since. The actor was last seen in Zoolander 2, released earlier this year.
[Feature Image by Lucky Team Studio/Shutterstock]
