Yahoo News Stephen Fry tells how he 'dodged bullet' of prostate cancer - with help from surgeon
Stephen Fry today told how he “really dodged a bullet” by deciding to undergo an operation for prostate cancer.
The actor joined forces with his surgeon, Ben Challacombe, to describe the realities of robotic surgery to help other men considering having their prostate removed.
Fry said he felt “very, very, very lucky and privileged” to have made a full recovery — while Mr Challacombe revealed his nerves at operating on a “national treasure” and the fear of something going wrong.
Their “both sides of the scalpel” article in a medical journal gives an extraordinary insight into the realities of treating prostate cancer, the most common cancer in UK men, killing 12,000 a year.
The operation was performed privately in January last year at Princess Grace hospital in Marylebone.
Fry’s doctor had found his PSA levels — an indicator of cancer — to be “higher than he liked”. An MRI scan found there was “something mischievous going on in the prostate region”, Fry said. He underwent an ultrasound and biopsy, which he described as “these charming intrusions into my personal space”. His prostate was found to be “seriously diseased” and he worried about the cancer cells moving around his body.
"I had watched enough episodes of my friend Hugh Laurie’s drama House to feel I knew all about ‘metastasis’"
Stephen Fry
“I had watched enough episodes of my friend Hugh Laurie’s medical drama House to feel I knew all about that dark word ‘metastasis’,” he wrote.
He opted for surgery in preference to radiotherapy and hormone treatment, fearing the latter might slow him down “cognitively or creatively”. He wrote: “I’ve seen what spaying does to a tomcat and I wanted no part of it.”
When he awoke “without any pain or discomfort” he thought the operation hadn’t taken place.
Fry, 61, was walking two or three miles a day several weeks after surgery. The following month he was able to travel to the US.
“I feel that with the help of an able, friendly and wonderfully proficient team I have really dodged a bullet here,” he said. “The aggressive nature and rate of the carcinoma suggests that had I left it unattended I might well have been presented with serious issues.
“As it is, I feel very, very, very lucky and privileged.”
Mr Challacombe told of his “excitement and slight trepidation” at treating such a famous patient, “having watched every episode of Blackadder, Fry And Laurie and so on. There was also the concern of “what if it didn’t go well?” He advised Fry to get as fit as he could prior to the operation, and to practise pelvic floor exercises.
Fry agreed to the article, in Nature Reviews Urology, to promote the work of the Urology Foundation charity.
Pathology results post-surgery confirmed that all cancerous tissue had been removed. “He was delighted and I was relieved — you don’t want to be the surgeon who doesn’t get it all out on a high-profile patient,” Mr Challacombe said.
Two subsequent PSA tests have been “extremely encouraging”. Mr Challacombe, also an NHS surgeon at Guy’s hospital, said the increase in publicity for prostate cancer “might have actually led to many men getting an earlier diagnosis and at a more treatable stage, and might have actually saved some lives”. He told the Standard: “Stephen’s amazing ability to tell his own story in such an engaging and honest way will act as a valuable resource for other men going through this difficult process.”
