Stephen Fry in prostate cancer battle
STEPHEN Fry has revealed that a battle with prostate cancer was the reason he recently stepped out of the limelight.
The 60-year-old had surgery in January to remove his prostate and 11 surrounding lymph nodes after “an aggressive little bugger” of a cancerous tumour was discovered.
The former QI presenter tweeted a 13-minute video yesterday in response to “rumours that had started to swirl” about the state of his health.
He handed over hosting the Baftas to Joanna Lumley this month after 12 years in the role.
The cancer was discovered after Mr Fry went to his doctor for a flu jab just before Christmas and had a general check-up.
The next day his GP called to say he was worried about his level of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) – a chemical that can indicate the presence of cancer.
Mr Fry said he was not worried because the level did not seem to him to be high, but was persuaded to have an MRI scan.
He thought it was “taking a sledgehammer to a peanut” but the results warranted a biopsy, which showed malignant cells graded high enough to require intervention.
The star opted for surgery over radiotherapy and it was confirmed that the cancer had not spread. He expected to recover well but said that it was tougher than he thought, and paid tribute to his husband Elliott Spencer and the few friends who knew for their support.
Mr Fry said he had previously avoided thinking about the possibility of getting cancer and urged men of “a certain age” to get checked for the disease.
“Cancer is a word that rings in your head. ‘I’ve got cancer’, I kept saying to myself, good heavens,” he said. “You’re not supposed to get cancer. I know it’s a cliche but you don’t think it’s going to happen to you – cancer is something that happens to other people.
“So far as we know, it’s all been got. Are there greater chances of me getting other cancers now? Apparently not.
“But I won’t know for sure until I get my PSA levels checked.”
Figures published earlier this month by Prostate Cancer UK showed the number of men dying from prostate cancer has overtaken female deaths from breast cancer for the first time.
The latest figures, from 2015, showed there were 11,819 deaths from prostate cancer compared with 11,442 from breast cancer.
The biggest cancer killers in the UK remain lung and bowel cancer, with prostate in third place.
Angela Culhane, chief executive of Prostate Cancer UK, said the number of prostate cancer deaths had risen as a result of an ageing population.
She also said improvements in research and screening meant the same effect was not seen for breast cancer.
“We haven’t yet got the big game-changing advances that breast cancer has had in terms of the screening programme and also the precision medicine developments,” she explained.
Breast cancer had received twice as much money for research as prostate cancer, she noted, adding: “We need to bust the myth that prostate cancer is just an old man’s disease that you don’t need to think is significant.”
There are a number of options for treatment, including simply monitoring the disease, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy and surgery.
Over the past several years, many new treatments have been developed.
There are a number of clinical trials for which patients may be eligible if they discuss the options with their doctor.