Hi, I'm Dr Jim Hu from Weill Cornell Medicine, Department of Urology.
When Timothy came to see me, there was nothing terribly surprising about him aside from the
fact that he was relatively young to be diagnosed with prostate cancer.
My name is Timothy Bellavia and I'm a prostate cancer survivor.
Growing up, a lot of people in my family were diagnosed with cancer or succumbed to it.
Because I had so many members in my family diagnosed or died of cancer, it was something
that I would have to face.
My father was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
However, I think he really had it years before.
Had he had a PSA earlier or maybe even an MRI, they would have caught it in time and
he would have maybe be still living today.
In the United States, the average age of diagnosis is 66 years old.
So when Timothy came to see me, he was diagnosed with low risk prostate cancer.
His PSA was 5.6 and for a man in his forties, that's significantly higher than normal.
Out of the 12 samples or cores that were taken, four of them had Gleason 6 prostate cancer.
Because of my father's late diagnosis, he really suffered at the end.
One of the last conversations I had with my father was, "I really want you to get your
screening, get your PSA.
I'm worried that all of my sons will have this horrible disease."
And so I did go to the doctor.
My doctor said, "You might be a little early, but okay, you're not, you're too young for
this."
But I said, "No, I really need to know."
Prostate cancer fortunately is one in which there's a test, the prostate specific antigen
or PSA test that you can draw as a blood test.
And therefore when elevated, prostate cancer can be found relatively early, so that there
aren't any symptoms because it has not spread outside of the prostate.
I had my PSA screening and to my surprise and horror, my PSA was very high for my age.
I had just come back from my father's memorial.
I flew into New York.
I landed.
I went to my urologist at the time and he said I had cancer.
My reaction, take it out, get rid of it.
I knew immediately that I wanted to have my prostate removed.
I was brought to Weill Cornell Medicine and introduced to Dr. Hu.
What I liked most about Dr. Hu was that he didn't sugarcoat anything.
He gave me options.
He told me everything that I already knew and he says, "You are correct in making that
decision.
That is the best decision with your family's history."
The survival rate for prostate cancer in the United States are 99% at five years and 95%
at 10 years, and so Timothy, by virtue of being diagnosed with localized prostate cancer,
that is, it hadn't spread outside the prostate.
His likelihood of survival is excellent.
Doctor Hu guided me and scheduled me immediately to have the robotic surgery.
His staff was wonderful from the administration to the nurse.
They all remembered my name.
I felt like a rock star.
He connected me with this man who just had the robotic surgery and he was a mentor and
he texted me often and just gave me the knowledge that I couldn't really get in a handbook.
What were the expectation, what's going to work?
Besides my husband, he was my rock during this process and I'm so grateful.
I felt really supported and I knew I was going to be okay.
Right after surgery I continued to do my physical therapy exercises.
Plus I was able to travel around the country and lecture like I did before.
Today I feel 100%.
I am exercising at the gym, working with my trainer.
My daily routine is back to normal.
My experience at Weill Cornell Medicine was incredible before the surgery and after the
surgery, they put my fears at ease.
Here at Weill Cornell we recommend early PSA screening so that prostate cancers are detected
early and men have all the options available to them.
Prostate cancer is not about your lifestyle.
It's in your genes, get screened.
So what everyone can learn from Timothy is to get early PSA testing so that cancers may
be detected before they've spread.
I knew in the hands of Dr. Hu, Nurse Green and his wonderful friendly staff that I was
going to be okay.