Ben Stiller has revealed he was diagnosed with "immediately aggressive" cancer two years ago and secretly had surgery to remove his prostate.
The 50-year-old Zoolander actor opened up about his battle with the disease for the first time on Tuesday's Howard Stern Show, explaining how doctors diagnosed him with cancer in June 2014.
He underwent surgery shortly after to treat the disease and is now two years cancer-free. Stiller says he is "extremely grateful" but keeps getting a PSA test every six months to make sure.
"It came out of the blue for me. I had no idea,” Stiller said. “At first, I didn’t know what was going to happen. I was scared. 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 father of two hopes his own experiences bring greater awareness of prostate cancer's symptoms and urges younger people to be checked for the illness.
So, I had cancer a couple of years ago and I wanted to talk about it. And the test that saved my life. https://t.co/KWirBcRZ7D
— Ben Stiller (@RedHourBen) October 4, 2016
After his appearance on Stern, Stiller posted an essay on Medium about his experience, with helpful links to learn more about prostate cancer and PSA screenings.
Stiller has just finished a Noah Baumbach movie with Adam Sandler in which he and Sandler play Dustin Hoffman's sons.
