This summer, when he wasn't busy helping patients recover from addiction, Dr. Drew Pinksy battled prostate cancer, a secret struggle he recently revealed on his official website and on his show, "Dr. Drew On Call," US Weekly reports.
The 55-year-old radio and television personality underwent a radical robotic prostatectomy in July, spending his 4th on the couch recovering and in great pain. The cancer was first detected in the form of a low-grade tumor in 2011, after Pinsky's wife "begged" him to go see a doctor. Though he was reluctant, he went and endured a biopsy after being diagnosed with prostatitis, or inflammation of the prostate.
"My doctor and I decided on a course of active surveillance, also known as 'watchful waiting,'" Pinsky wrote. "It's just like it sounds. So we paid attention. The tumor was monitored over the course of more than a year. I had two more biopsies. I'm glad I did. I'm glad my physician's intuition told him to order them. They showed that the mass on my prostate had spread. There was too much volume. The tumor had become unpredictable. Something wasn't right, and my doctor knew it."
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men, and 200,000 men are diagnosed each year in the U.S. After undergoing surgery, Pinsky remains hopeful that he has been cured, the only remnant of the disease six small scars on his torso.
"I'm grateful this was a detectable, survivable cancer," he wrote. "I'm pleased that the judgment and intuition of my physicians were spot-on every step of the way. And I'm glad my wife's internal radar was working well. Thank you, Susan, for making me go to the doctor."
Pinsky referred to prostate cancer as a "stealth disease" and urged men not to panic if they suspected they had it, as more than half of all men by age 80 will have cancer in the prostate, though it behaves differently at different ages.
Pinsky emphaized that "time is on your side," and urged men not to rush decisions like radiation and surgery, as there isn't a one-size-fits-all treatment.
