Actor Ben Stiller has revealed that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer two years ago at the age of 48.
Stiller, now 50, opened up about his battle with the disease for the first time during an interview on “The Howard Stern Show” on Tuesday, reports usmagazine.com.
Stiller explained that he and his doctor were able to detect and treat the cancer.
“It came out of the blue for me. I had no idea. At first, I didn’t know what was gonna 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 gonna happen,” Stiller said.
The “Zoolander” star then explained why he decided to finally announce the news.
“I wanted to talk about it because of the (PSA or prostate-specific antigen) test…I feel like the test saved my life,” he said.
A PSA test is a blood test typically used to screen males for prostate cancer.
“It’s the second most deadly cancer, but it’s about one of the most curable,” Stiller said.
When the “Night at the Museum” star was first diagnosed, he immediately called his close friends as well as fellow actor Robert De Niro, who beat prostate cancer several years ago.
“The first thing I did when I got diagnosed was get on the internet to try to learn. I saw De Niro had had it. I called him right away,” he explained.
Stiller, who is married to actress Christine Taylor, also told the news to his two children, daughter Ella and son Quinlin.
“I told them I had something I had to deal with. They were pretty cool with it,” he said.
