Ben Stiller opens up about prostate cancer diagnosis

Actor Ben Stiller revealed on Tuesday that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2014.

Stiller told Howard Stern how the diagnosis shocked him, and elaborated on the experience in an essay on Medium.

In the piece, Stiller describes the surrealism of his diagnosis, a filmic moment that was not part of any movie.

As my new, world-altering doctor spoke about cell cores and Gleason scores, probabilities of survival, incontinence and impotence, why surgery would be good and what kind would make the most sense, his voice literally faded out like every movie or TV show about a guy being told he had cancer…a classic Walter White moment, except I was me, and no one was filming anything at all.

Stiller is adamant that the key to his early diagnosis and survival was taking a Prostate-Specific Antigen test before he turned 50.

"Taking the PSA test saved my life. Literally. That’s why I am writing this now," he writes. "There has been a lot of controversy over the test in the last few years. Articles and op-eds on whether it is safe, studies that seem to be interpreted in many different ways, and debates about whether men should take it all. I am not offering a scientific point of view here, just a personal one, based on my experience."

Dr. Bernard Kruger tested Stiller every six months starting when he was 46 (the American Cancer Society recommends the onset of testing depending on personal cancer risk), referring him to a urologist after a year and a half.

"I would not have known I had a growing tumor until two years after I got treated," Stiller writes. "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."

Stiller reports that he has been cancer-free for two years now.