Since Anthony Bridges discovered he had prostate cancer six years ago, he hasn’t talked about it. He immediately told his Facebook friends.
Now the 68-year-old Georgia man spends time working with others to encourage other men to talk to their doctors about screening.
Not everyone is as eager to share, for cultural or privacy reasons – or because they just don’t want to talk about it. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin kept his prostate cancer quiet, among other things President Joe Biden. And more recently, Kate, Princess of Wales, waited weeks before publicly revealing her cancer.
Austin described his diagnosis as a “gut feeling” and his instinct was to keep it private. In a video statement, Kate said it was a “huge shock” and that she and her husband, Prince William, had tried to “keep this under control.” privately for the sake of our young family.”
Their reactions hardly surprised experts. Dr. Otis Brawley says he has encountered men who don’t even want to talk to their own doctors about their prostate cancer.
Brawley, a professor of oncology and epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University, recalled a time decades ago when cancer simply wasn’t talked about and was instead referred to as the “Big C.”
Public conversations about prostate cancer changed, he said, when former Sen. Bob Dole announced his diagnosis and spoke publicly about erectile dysfunction, a side effect of the treatment.
In the case of breast cancer, it was first lady Betty Ford who spoke openly about her surgery and treatment.
“That opened the floodgates. Back then it was okay to talk about cancer,” Brawley said.
In the US, death rates from cancer have been declining for decades, attributed to advances in the fight against lung cancer, screening and better treatments. Yet it remains the country’s second leading cause of death after heart disease, and the number of cases is increasing as the population ages and grows.
Elaine Smith, who counsels patients at City of Hope Cancer Center Atlanta, said a patient’s openness often depends on personality. Some do not want to be identified only as a cancer patient.
“Many of my patients say that people talk to them in a different tone of voice,” Smith said. “‘They lean against me differently, they look at me differently with their eyes.'”
Sometimes people worry about how their coworkers will react if they have to miss work for appointments and treatments.
“In many cases we may not recognize it, but … that can sometimes play a role in how they are judged on their job performance,” said Dr. Bradley Carthon of Emory University’s Winship Cancer Institute.
Patients usually share this with their families, experts say, but even that can be difficult.
Kate noted that it had taken time to “explain everything to George, Charlotte and Louis in a way that suits them and reassure them that I am doing well.”
“She has the added challenge of having young children,” says Dr. Christina Annunziata, a cancer physician at Inova Schar Cancer Institute in Fairfax, Virginia. “No matter how difficult it is to explain to friends and family, or even to colleagues. It’s even harder to explain to young children.”
The downside to keeping it private is that “you’re dealing with this all alone,” Carthon said.
Dr. Paul Monk, who treats cancer patients at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, said it’s important for patients to bring a family member or other support to appointments.
“I don’t think they hear everything I say,” he said. “And so when you bring someone else with you to your doctor visit, that’s another pair of ears and I think that’s critical.”
Bridges’ wife, Phyllis, filled that role for him when he began treatment for advanced prostate cancer in 2018. He said he had no symptoms and had only gone for a check-up at her insistence.
Bridges felt called to share his story with others, especially black men, and is now part of a program called Project Elevation. The program works through local churches and aims to remove some of the stigma surrounding prostate cancer and provide information about screening.
“We need to change the mindset,” said the Albany, Georgia, resident. “We have to take away the fear.”
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
