My Fight With Prostate Cancer: A Secret One Man Has Carried for Five Years

Second of Three Parts

I have a secret. A little more than five years ago, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Until now, the circle of people who knew was intentionally small: my wife, my daughters, and a few close friends. I did not hide it because I was ashamed. I kept it private because saying the words out loud seemed to give the disease more room in my life than I wanted it to have.

Cancer was something I was living with, but I did not want it to become the first thing people saw when they looked at me. However, when we decided The Birmingham Times should help raise prostate cancer awareness, I felt obligated to share my story as Publisher.

For me, the discovery began in the most ordinary way possible: a routine annual physical. The blood work showed a slightly elevated prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, level. My primary care doctor believed the most likely explanation was a urinary tract infection; however, he felt I should see a urologist for a consultation. The urologist agreed that an infection could be responsible but suggested that I consider a prostate biopsy to be safe.
I agreed to have the biopsy. The results changed the direction of the conversation. The elevated PSA was not merely the aftereffect of an infection; it was prostate cancer.

In my case, one of the 12 samples produced a Gleason score of 3+4 (a system used to grade prostate cancer based on how abnormal the cells look under a microscope), and a couple of other samples were considered suspicious. In an instant, numbers that had once meant nothing to me became deeply personal. They were no longer marks on a laboratory report. They were evidence that something serious was happening inside my body, even though I felt fine.

I decided to seek a second opinion from Dr. Michael Bivins here in Birmingham. That decision was not a rejection of the doctors who had cared for me. It was an acknowledgment that a cancer diagnosis is too important to approach passively. Dr. Bivins reviewed my biopsy and my Prolaris score (a genomic test result that measures prostate cancer aggressiveness by analyzing cell cycle progression genes).

Dr. Bivins ordered a prostate MRI and asked another physician in his practice to also evaluate the findings. The extra eyes, additional imaging, and careful discussion gave me something I badly needed at that moment: a clearer understanding of what we knew, what we did not know, and what choices were available.

We discussed treatment options: prostate removal, radiation, chemotherapy, and active surveillance. Before cancer entered my vocabulary, “surveillance” might have sounded like doing nothing. I learned that it can mean the opposite. It can involve regular monitoring, follow-up tests, and a willingness to act if the disease changes.

Every patient’s circumstances are different, and no one should treat my experience as a substitute for medical advice. But I came to understand that making a sound decision does not always mean choosing the most aggressive option immediately. Sometimes it means gathering the right information, weighing benefits and risks, and staying disciplined about follow-up.

For five years, I carried that reality mostly in silence: PSA tests every six months, follow-up prostate MRIs to determine if there were any visible changes in my prostate, and an additional MRI-targeted prostate biopsy to see if cancer was present in other samples. While the privacy gave me a sense of control, not sharing my diagnosis has not stopped me from speaking up when talking to other men about going to the doctor and paying attention to their body. Sometimes I am sure they may have wondered why I knew so much about prostate cancer, or maybe without probing, they just figured I knew from experience.

There have been moments when I wondered whether keeping my diagnosis secret protected me or isolated me. The truth is that it did a little of both.

I am sharing it now because silence can unintentionally suggest that serious illness is rare, distant, or somehow incompatible with an ordinary life. My cancer was found because I went to a routine physical, my doctor noticed a modest change, and both he and the urologist took the next step instead of dismissing it.

I did not have dramatic symptoms. I did not have a warning that announced itself with urgency. I had an appointment, a blood test, and physicians who paid attention.

That is the part of this story I hope others will remember. As men, we are often skilled at minimizing discomfort, postponing appointments, and treating vulnerability as weakness. We should be just as practiced at asking questions, seeking second opinions, and talking honestly with the people we trust. Screening decisions are personal and should be made with a qualified clinician, based on age, health history, and individual risk. But avoiding the conversation is also a decision usually made without enough information.

So, yes, I have a secret. Or perhaps I should say I had one.

Prostate cancer has been part of my life for five years, but it is not the whole of my life. Telling this story does not change my diagnosis. It changes the burden of carrying it alone. If my experience prompts one person to schedule a physical, ask a better question, or seek the clarity of a second opinion, then breaking my silence will have been worth it.

Samuel P. Martin is President and Publisher of the Birmingham Times.