The actor-director Ben Stiller has spoken about his diagnosis with prostate cancer. Speaking on the Howard Stern Show, Stiller said he was diagnosed with “immediately aggressive” prostate cancer two years ago, and has had surgery to treat it.
Appearing alongside his surgeon, Stiller, 50, said he hoped being open about his own experiences would lead to greater awareness of prostate cancer’s symptoms. He also said he now regularly urged younger people to be checked for the illness.
Stiller said of his own diagnosis: “It came out of the blue for me. I had no idea.”
After seeing a urologist, who told him he had cancer, Stiller then spoke to “a bunch of different” doctors, including Robert De Niro’s physician, eventually having surgery to remove the prostate.
The actor-director wrote a piece about his experience on Medium saying the doctor “performed a robotic assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy. Due to a lot of skill and a little beneficence from some higher power, he got all the cancer. As of this writing I am two years cancer free and extremely grateful.”
Stiller stresses that he is still tested regularly and urges men to get their PSA level checked, which indicates the presence of prostate cancer, despite some controversy about whether the test can lead to over-treatment of cancers which are not life-threatening.
Stiller writes: “If [the doctor] 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.”
The actor was last seen on screen in Zoolander 2, the belated sequel to the fashion comedy. That film was released in 2016; Stiller’s credits prior to that were the 2014 comedies While We’re Young and Night at the Museum 3.
Last month, Stiller visited the UN General Assembly to present secretary-general Ban Ki-moon with a petition bearing more than 1.3 million signatures, calling on governments to act with solidarity and shared responsibility for the world’s refugees.
His upcoming films include a new collaboration with Noah Baumbach, Yeh Din Ka Kissa, and a biopic of the founder of the Chippendales. Both will be released next year.
Stiller’s discussion of his diagnosis prompted a statement from Angela Culhane, chief executive at Prostate Cancer UK, who said: “We applaud Ben for his courage in talking openly about his personal experience.
“The disease kills one man every hour in the UK but if it is caught early, it can more often than not be treated successfully, which is why awareness like this is so important. It is crucial for every man to acknowledge the threat that prostate cancer can pose to his life. Some men in particular face a higher than average risk and so if you are over 50, black, or have a family history of prostate cancer, it’s important that you to speak to your doctor about the disease. Anyone with any concerns can visit prostatecanceruk.org.”
