The late Harry Belafonte broke many barriers in music, acting, Civil Rights--and prostate cancer
AS needs a Belafonte
Harry Belafonte was an activist on many fronts—including prostate cancer.
As will be true with most patients with prostate cancer, he died from something else. He passed at 96 on April 25, according to his spokesman Ken Sunshine.
His obits didn’t even mention that he had prostate cancer back in 1996. Check out USA TODAY, New York Times, and Washington Post.
Belafonte broke barriers as a biracial performer in the 1950s, a Civil Rights activist—and as a prostate cancer patient. I remember as a kid listening his electrifying performances in the 1950s and 1960s on The Ed Sullivan Show.
Belafonte was upfront and personal about his prostate cancer. He called himself a “survivor” and shared his struggles with incontinence and impotence. He beat incontinence within a year with kegels and other exercises.
Men were just too "macho," he told a benefit for the Hoag Family Cancer Institute in Newport Beach, California. "The prostate is something that attacks that central part of the male body that men are very preoccupied with. Somehow, any disorder there means your life is over, you can't be a man anymore, you are now something less,” he told a mainly female audience.
And, he said, because the magic of Hollywood can turn the public perception of a man into that of "a good-looking tall thing that walks about … it can be even more difficult to discuss it.” He added, "The perception of you being somehow omnipotent is tarnished; the insurance companies don't want to insure you--you're not bankable for a play or film."
These days public figures are pretty open about the aggressive treatment of prostate cancer. Take Elton John, Rod Stewart, Gen. Colin Powell, and Ben Stiller. It’s a long list.
But public figures are not open about Active Surveillance. We don’t who they are and how many there are. They must be out there.
AS patient Sir Ian McKellen is active in gay rights and low-key on his low-risk [rostate cancer. Only actor-director Bill Duke, of “Predator” fame, has spoken out.
Performers can get insurance if they treat prostate cancer. It can be a more difficult, hit-or-miss proposition if they opt to ride the waves of AS. An insurance exam is the first step for any major project in Hollywood.
"I wasn't an artist who became an activist. I was an activist who became an artist," Belafonte wrote in his 2011 memoir. "Ever since my mother had drummed it into me, I'd felt the need to fight injustice wherever I saw it, in whatever way I could."
Thanks, Harry Belafonte for speaking out on prostate cancer,
AS needs a Harry Belafonte to explain how we can co-exist with our cancers without aggressive treatment and its side effects. Where are you?
Hopkin’s Dr. Epstein to hold a Q&A at ASPI on April 29
By Howard Wolinsky
In a last-minute addition, Johns Hopkins uropathologist Jonathan Epstein will answer questions on active surveillance, biopsies and second opinions at the meeting of Active Surveillance Patients International (ASPI) on April 29.
Originally, the meeting at 12 p.m. Eastern April 29 was only going to premiere the latest episode of the Active Surveillance 101 video series: "Second Opinions and Biopsies," featuring our intrepid researchers, PCa patient Larry White and his savvy wife Nancy White, interviewing uropathology legend Epstein.
But thanks to some schedule changes, Epstein will join a Q&A session after the video is aired.
Register: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYtdeqsrDorGt0ujT6Ifo0Jx0FU30yoAt3L
If you sign up and can’t make it, you’ll get a link to the recording.
If you have questions, send them to me at howard.wolinsky@gmail.com
Dr. Epstein is prepared to handle all-comers.
(Thanks to Meyer Quaynor from Prostate Cancer Support Canada for designing the flyer.)
Co-sponsors of the AS 101 series under the Active Surveillance Coalition include AnCan Foundation, Prostate Cancer Support Canada, Prostate Cancer Research Institute, and TheActiveSurveillor.com newsletter.
To view the full AS 101 series to date, covering PSAs, diagnosis, and Active Surveillance, go to https://aspatients.org/a-s-101/https://aspatients.org/a-s-101/