Ben Stiller reveals prostate cancer fight
US actor Ben Stiller, 50, has spoken up in support of early cancer detection. He revealed recently that he is a prostate cancer survivor.
He was 46 when he began a baseline Prostate Specific Antigen test for the disease and was monitored by doctors over the next two years.
In September 2014, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, but was pronounced cancer-free a few months later after surgery.
He wrote in a Medium blog post that the cancer had fortunately been detected early.
"If my doctor had waited, as the American Cancer Society recommends, until I was 50, I would not have known I had a growing tumour until two years after I got treated," he wrote.
Stiller said the test is being criticised because it could lead to unnecessary over-treatment, but said men should at least be given the option so they stand a chance of early detection.
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