The Zoolander 2 actor, Ben Stiller, revealed his "scary" experience battling prostate cancer in a radio show appearance yesterday.
The award-winning actor said that he was diagnosed with "immediately aggressive" prostate cancer last June 2014 and underwent surgery to remove his prostate two months later. Accompanied by his surgeon, Edward Schaeffer, Stiller also admitted on SiriusXM's The Howard Stern Show that by September of the same year, he was told he was cancer-free.
Puzzled how he got treacherous cancer, Stiller confessed, "It came out of the blue for me. I had no idea."
"At first, I didn't know what was going to happen. I was scared."
He also mentioned on that same interview, this cancer diagnosis has put its toll on his movie schedules. "It just stopped everything in your life because you can't plan for a movie because you don't know what's going to happen," the 50-year-old actor added.
Stiller, who previously starred in blockbuster movies like "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" and "Night at the Museum" said he has decided to speak about it because he wants to bring awareness to the prostate-specific antigen test (PSA), which he thinks "saved" him.
In an essay he wrote on Medium, he explains why it is important to get tested early.
"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, " Stiller narrated.
Luckily, he had a thoughtful internist who convinced him to start checking his PSA level, and according to Stiller, it prevented the cancer cells from progressing.
The American Cancer Society actually recommends the checking of one's PSA at age 50. But Stiller, who was then 48 years old admitted that might be a little too late for his case. Stiller, now considered cancer-free, encourages everyone to take this test seriously.
According to reports, Ben Stiller continues his fight against cancer by taking PSA test every six months.
