Ben Stiller Reveals Prostate Cancer Diagnosis

Gilbert Carrasquillo/FilmMagic(NEW YORK) — Actor and director Ben Stiller has revealed he was diagnosed with prostate cancer two years ago, and underwent surgery to remove the gland, and the cancer. 

Stiller shared the news in an entry with the blog Medium, recalling how in 2014, he heard his urologist seemingly nonchalantly say, “‘So, yeah, it’s cancer.”

“[H]is voice literally faded out like every movie or TV show about a guy being told he had cancer,” Stiller recalled, “… a classic Walter White moment, except I was me, and no one was filming anything at all.”

The Night at the Museum series star noted, “I got diagnosed with prostate cancer Friday, June 13th, 2014. On September 17th of that year I got a test back telling me I was cancer free. The three months in between were a crazy roller coaster ride with which about 180,000 men a year in America can identify.”

“Taking the PSA test saved my life. Literally,” the actor declared, describing the non-invasive blood test that can detect the cancer. “That’s why I am writing this now.”

Stiller said he had no family history or 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,” he said.  

“If he 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,” says Stiller.  “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.”  

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