Ben Stiller Opens Up About His Prostate Cancer Diagnosis
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In his first interview since disclosing his prostate cancer diagnosis, Ben Stiller is happy to report he is cancer-free and doing well.
The actor appeared on “Today” Tuesday morning with his surgeon, Dr. Edward Schaeffer, to give an update on his status and bring awareness to the disease.
“I’m doing great,” Stiller told Matt Lauer. “I was really fortunate that my course of treatment was basically an operation and that was it.”
The “Zoolander” star was diagnosed in June 2014, which he states, “wasn’t on [his] radar at all.” Stiller showed no symptoms and has no family history of the disease. He credits taking a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test as a precautionary measure, which ended up saving his life. Blood level of the PSA is often elevated in men with prostate cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute.
“It’s a whole new world, so you need to educate yourself — for me, it was learning what the options were,” Stiller said. He eventually opted to have his prostate removed.
Dr. Schaeffer, who treated Stiller, stated the importance of finding the right treatment, which can differ for different people. “Men can have difficultly with their urination and with their sexual function after treatment for prostate cancer. It’s not just isolated to surgery,” Schaeffer said.
Stiller talked candidly about his side effects. “When you’re confronted with the question of do you want to live or do you want to make sure if your sex life is the best it can be, I opted to get rid of the cancer and see what happens and thankfully everything is cool.”
“The best and most important step for individual men is to discuss whether or not they should get testing for prostate cancer with their doctor,” Schaeffer recommended.
“If it’s up to me, every guy should go and get tested after the age of 40-45,” Stiller added.
Watch Stiller’s interview above or click here.
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