If you’ve just been diagnosed with
, or if you’re living with the
, you’re not alone. In fact, you’re in good company, with numerous high-profile celebrities sharing their experiences to raise awareness of this common cancer, which affects about one in eight men. Here are just some of their stories...
Actor, comedian, producer, director and writer Ben Stiller was only 48 when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2014, following
he’d been having every six months since he turned 46. He had no symptoms, no family history of prostate cancer, and was not in a high-risk group, but the regular blood testing picked up elevating levels of the PSA protein produced in the prostate, which can be an indicator of cancer. Further investigation found that he had mid-range aggressive cancer with a Gleason score of 7/10.
Stiller opted to have his
via a robotic assisted laparoscopic
, and later told US talk show Today that he attributed the PSA test with saving his life.
During the interview he and his surgeon alluded to possible side effects of treatment, which can include incontinence and impotence. ‘When you’re confronted with the question of, “Hey, do you want to live or do you want to make sure your sex life is the best it can be?” I opted for wanting to get rid of the cancer.’
Now an outspoken advocate for
, he wrote about his experience on open discussion platform Medium. It’s worth a read...
It was following a routine medical check prior to launching into a new acting project that British actor, comedian, director and writer Stephen Fry received the news that there was ‘something mischievous’ going on in his prostate region.
led to an MRI and then an ultrasound and biopsy, which revealed a
of 8/10. A month later, he checked into hospital for a
, which successfully removed all traces of the tumour.
How do we know all this? He and his surgeon later documented his story from diagnosis to recovery for the medical journal Nature – providing a fascinating insight into the
from both sides of the scalpel.
US politician John Kerry was Democratic senator for Massachusetts and still in his 50s when he was
in 2002. While his PSA levels were within the normal range, they had increased over a two-year period at a rate that convinced his urologist to recommend a biopsy, revealing
with a Gleason score of 6/10, according to a report in the Urological Sciences Research Foundation. Kerry, whose father had died of the same cancer only two years earlier, opted for surgery to remove his prostate gland.
During his 2004 presidential campaign against President George W Bush, the Democratic nominee and his doctors were at pains to convince the nation that he was fully recovered and the chance of his cancer returning was negligible. Although he didn’t win the election, subsequent tests have indicated no recurrence of the cancer and he has since served as US Secretary of State and US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate.
It was at a
gig in 2019 that pop legend Rod Stewart revealed his own battle with the disease. The singer was on stage with his former Faces band member Ronnie Wood, who has had his own struggles with lung cancer, when he told the audience that regular check-ups had caught his prostate cancer early and he had since been given the all-clear following treatment. It was his second brush with cancer following successful surgery for
in 2000.
He encouraged other men to seek regular check-ups to catch this common cancer during its early stages, which are often symptomless, reportedly saying: ‘Guys, you’ve got to really go to the doctor... Finger up the bum, no harm done.’
Actor Robert de Niro credits
and a healthy lifestyle with his recovery from prostate cancer. Diagnosed following a routine PSA test in 2003 at the age of 60, he has chosen to keep the details of his treatment private, but a spokesperson confirmed to
site Survivornet that he has staged a full recovery and is now
. He has since appeared in multiple movies and in 2011 he welcomed his sixth child to the world.
Former US Secretary of State and four-star general in the US Army, Colin Powell has been a vocal supporter of prostate cancer awareness among black men (who develop prostate cancer 60 per cent more often than white men and have a higher chance of dying from it) since he underwent prostate cancer surgery in 2003. “When I was diagnosed with prostate cancer at 66, I wasn’t terribly surprised or shocked,” he told blackdoctor.org. “For the five years before that, I had been going for very regular checkups and my PSA was always high. PSA alone doesn’t indicate cancer, it just says something is going on. I knew sooner or later that something would show up. And because I’m black, I have a higher propensity for prostate cancer than white folks do.” Because of this heightened risk, black men are encouraged to have annual prostate tests from the age of 40, or earlier if they have a strong family history of prostate cancer.
One of the few celebrities to speak candidly about ongoing
, composer Andrew Lloyd-Webber revealed in 2011 that an operation to remove his prostate in 2009 had left him impotent. ‘You just have to live with it. You just have to laugh,’ he was reported as saying in the Daily Mail. ‘I’m alive; I have my music; I have my children. I am the luckiest man. I regard it as great luck that I’m out the other side.’
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