Chapter II: CDR Mike "Bing" Crosby (USN ret.) and his clash with the military-prostate cancer-industrial complex

(Editor’s note: I first met Commander (CDR) Mike “Bing” Crosby (USN ret.) in 2018 at the Prostate Cancer Research Institute meeting in LA. We were both newbies to advocacy for prostate cancer patients, coming from different angles.

(Mike, who had advanced cancer that had recurred, represented Veterans Prostate Cancer Awareness. I, with low-risk PCa,represented Active Surveillance Patients International.

(Bing impressed me. He had the self-confidence and bearing of the “Top Gun” grad he is—like movie characters such as “Maverick” and “Iceman.” It takes guts to take on the Pentagon and the rest of the military establishment even as a retired pilot advocating a cause that the honchos may not want to hear about.

(I liked him. We were comrades-in-arms, so to speak, though I was a Vietnam-era draft resistor. We have stayed in touch. I appreciated his support of a petition I penned earlier this year asking U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to stop trying to hide his prostate cancer and become an advocate, especially for Black men like him with PCa. Austin did an about-face and did the right thing.

(Meanwhile, Bing kept up his advocacy until he ran into some turbulence and decided to shut down his operation and revise his mission. I just interviewed Bing to try to get more details—the story behind the story. He shared some information about military contractors, apparently fearful of class-action suits, who stopped seeing him or said they would only see him in the presence of legal counsel. He declined to name names. But I have a hunch he was shunned by the usual suspects—we don’t need to name them and likely know who they are.—HW)

By Howard Wolinsky

Mike “Bing” Crosby (CDR USN ret.) formed Veterans Prostate Cancer Awareness Inc. (VPCa), almost eight years ago to raise awareness about prostate cancer and to educate veterans and active-duty personnel about the No. 1 cancer diagnosed within the Veterans Administration.

Crosby has been a high-profile figure in advocacy for vets with prostate cancer and provided a neutral ground for VA researchers to meet with drug industry researchers.

All seemed to be going well.

But then, abruptly, on Sept. 24, Crosby announced he was “suspending operations of the charity,” letting go of most of his already small staff and firing his medical advisory board. He told me he was rethinking his mission, whether his organization will expand beyond vets and even prostate cancer, and reconsidering his relationship with his many sponsors.

Mike “Bing Crosby”
“I want to do something big,” said Crosby, who expects to relaunch in early 2025.

Crosby, 64, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2015, was a patient in the Phoenix VA Medical Center during a scandal in which his care was delayed six months within the system and he had to seek care outside of the system. 

The VA in Phoenix was rife with corruption, bribery and cronyism, where staff was taking payoffs to help patients avoid long lines to see doctors and VA urologists only offered limited services.  There were issues in other centers, Some patients died,

It all led to a reform of the system during the Trump Administration, with a pipeline established for VA patients to receive care outside the VA that would be covered. The the Trump Administration initiated the“Mission Act” that has impacted veteran patients positively,

Meanwhile, on the personal front, Crosby, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and of the “Top Gun” Fighter Weapons School, wondered if his cancer, eventually diagnosed as a Gleason 8, was tied to his service.

In 2022, Crosby told me in an interview: “Whether [my prostate cancer] was service-related, is a big gray area, a big question because we don't know whether it's exposure to radiation sources on flight decks or in the airplane itself, or whether it's chemicals that can be either ingested or inhaled in the cockpit or on the flight decks of aircraft carriers, or on flight lines, or just maybe exposure to high adrenaline levels that can theoretically cause damage to some of your DNA.”

Last year, a Pentagon study, prompted by Crosby,  provided evidence that military pilots like Crosby faced abnormally high rates of cancer —including prostate cancer. The study also showed, for the first time, higher cancer rates in ground crews who fuel, maintain, and launch aircraft.

The year-long “Study on the Incidence of Cancer Diagnosis and Mortality Among Military Aviators and Aviation Support Personnel” included nearly 900,000 personnel who flew on or worked on military aircraft between 1992 and 2017. This covers deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Somalia, Uganda, and elsewhere.

Researchers found in aircrew members an 87 percent higher rate of melanoma, 39 percent higher rate of thyroid cancer, 16 percent higher rate of prostate cancer, and a 24 percent higher rate of cancer for all sites.

Ground crew members had a higher incidence of cancers of the brain and nervous system (by 19 percent), thyroid (by 15 percent), melanoma (by 9 percent), kidney and renal pelvis (by 9 percent), and of all sites (by 3 percent).

(TheActiveSurveillor.com take on the study: https://howardwolinsky.substack.com/p/attention-agent-orange-and-now-this?utm_source=publication-search Crosby is convinced that his PCa was service related—though the military establishment denies it now as it once denied health risks from Agent Orange during Vietnam and also hazardous burn pits.)

Retired military aviators have sounded the alarm for years about the number of air and ground crew members they knew who had cancer. The Pentagon had insisted that earlier military studies had found they were not at greater risk than the general U.S. population.

The latest findings sent shockwaves throughout the military establishment, from the Pentagon to contractors. 

Crosby always found contractors who supported his work on prostate cancer had offered him an open-door policy. But now, he said, suddenly he became persona non grata. The welcome mat was rolled up and some contractors even required legal counsel to be present before they would entertain a discussion of how to proceed.

Why?

Major defense contractors were worried that a mass class-action suit may be in the works, like another mesothelioma from asbestos exposure or the Camp Lejeune suit involving wrongful deaths and other harms related to contaminated water at the U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C.  The settlement is expected to come to $21 billion. The Camp Lejeune Justice Act was signed into law in 2022, allowing affected veterans and their families to seek compensation.

So, Crosby went from hero for helping vets in military circles to radioactive and the radioactivity apparently spread to some degree to VPCa donors, most of whom are major drug companies. 

VPCa received $900,000 in support in 2023, according to its 990 federal report. Crosby draws no salary and has personally invested a significant amount into this mission of education.

Unfortunately, his drug company sponsors, and large defense contractors, averse to controversy,  told Crosby he should stop rocking the boat on service-caused cancers, and shy away from promoting the message of early screening for the veteran population.

He said even drug companies, along with most of the medical establishment doesn’t view early screening for veterans as a major mission. Most emphasize treatment and pay slight attention, if any, to early detection, new screening and diagnostic technology, and Active Surveillance. It is at this early stage of diagnosis where studies, and statistics show that when discovered early prostate cancer has a documented 99% probability of cure, and if left untreated until its metastases the probability of cure reduces to approximately 30%.

Stay tuned as CDR Crosby has proven through his recurrence of prostate cancer (3 times) he does not give up easily.

While VPCa may have lost a battle in the fight against prostate cancer, I believe Crosy is “rearming” and will hopefully re-engage in the effort against prostate cancer and spearhead the education of Veterans with a higher incidence of this disease in the Veteran population, and the need to understand this significant health matter.

Safe flying, Bing. Keep the blue sky up.

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Hopkins’ AS guru joining TheActiveSurveillor AS25 webinar panel on AS news in 2024 and what’s coming in 2025

By Howard Wolinsky

Christian Pavlovich, MD, head of the Active Surveillance program at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, made big news this week with strong evidence supporting the benefit of a balanced health diet in preventing Grade Group 1 (Gleason 6) low-risk cancers from advancing to more advanced cancers.

Christian Pavlovich, MD

This research builds on some earlier evidence and is a major advance in patient care.

I remember when I went on AS in December 2010, the second thing I asked was about whether there was a diet I should follow to slow the disease. I got no direction. None of us did.

This new study is a game-changer.

'Eating right' can help Active Surveillors avoid progression of Gleason scores

Oct 21

By Howard Wolinsky

Read full story

Dr. Pavlovich, a strong supporter of this newsletter, has agreed to join the panel of TheActiveSurveillor.com’s first event AS25 for paid subscribers and founding subscribers. He will be speaking about this new trial and what’s coming next.

The program will be a year in review regarding surveillance in 2024 and what’s coming up in 2025.

AS25 will be held at noon Eastern, Saturday, January 4, 2025.

If you want a subscription to get a pass for AS25, please go here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYkf-iupjwjEtTHf_y7OOJigw5VhMZXRfQM

Paid subscribers and founding members already have been offered free passes.

Dr. Pavlovich joins Brian Helfand, MD, PhD, chief of urology and head of the AS program at NorthShore University HealthSystem outside Chicago. Helfand is an expert on genomics, genetics and AS.

I will be announcing two more panelists very soon. Can you guess who they are? One is a big surprise,