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Us TOO FLORENCE Behind the Headlines BY BOB HORNEY - PROSTATE CANCER SURVIVOR - Us TOO CHAPTER LEADER (Published November 9, 2016, The Siuslaw News) Wow! I didn't realize a prostate cancer survivor's personal message would be attacked so viciously, but it only took Ben Stiller's "coming out" as one such survivor to unleash the fury. Stiller is a celebrity comedian, but his message was totally serious. If you haven't been keeping up with the "buzz" on the internet, here's what has happened...so far. Stiller was diagnosed with prostate cancer on Friday, June 13th, 2014. As he says, "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." "I have no history of prostate cancer in my family and I am not in the high-risk group, being neither - to the best of my knowledge - of African or Scandinavian ancestry. I had no symptoms. 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." Those are very thoughtful, common sense statements. Following his baseline PSA, his doctor watched his PSA rise for over a year and a half, testing him every six months. As his numbers continued to rise, he sent him to a urologist. After getting a digital rectal exam (DRE), an MRI and, finally a prostate biopsy, he had an answer - prostate cancer with a Gleason score 7 (3+4) - what he termed a "mid-range aggressive cancer." Surgery was recommended. He decided to go out and get a few different opinions and all the doctors he conferred with concurred that the tumor needed to be taken out - and it was. He is currently two years cancer free and extremely grateful. Stiller gives all credit to his internist, Bernard Kruger: "If he (Kruger) 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 (USPSTF) 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." Continuing on, "I think men over the age of 40 should have the opportunity to discuss the test with their doctor and learn about it, so they can have the chance to be screened. After that an informed patient can make responsible choices as to how to proceed. I count my blessings that I had a doctor who presented me with these options." "This is a complicated issue, and an evolving one. But in this imperfect world, I believe the best way to determine a course of action for the most treatable, yet deadly cancer, is to detect it early." Stiller has that absolutely right. Anyone who doesn't understand that statement has not heard the words, "You have prostate cancer." Stiller then comes under attack by simply stating his belief, "Taking the PSA test saved my life. Literally." Any man with a rising PSA at the time of diagnosis would have a right to believe the PSA test saved his life. We who attend Us TOO Florence meetings know the PSA test saves lives. What the so-called experts don't seem to realize is the PSA test is not the problem. Their complaints of over-diagnosis, over-treatment and side effects, reflect what is done with the results of the test. That's where Ben Stiller's doctors proved their expertise as do our urologists at Oregon Urology Institute. These so-called experts are attacking the personal comments of Ben Stiller because they have found that celebrities actually have the power to influence people. Consequently, they are going all out to convince men that Stiller doesn't know what he is talking about. Unfortunately for them, Stiller rightly perceived that in his case, without the baseline PSA test, his prostate cancer would not have been diagnosed until it was likely too late for curative treatment. |
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