Bret Hart Discusses His Cancer Diagnosis & Why He Went Public With It

Bret Hart recently spoke with WWE.com, here are the highlights…

On His Cancer Diagnosis: Over the years, I’ve always had regular physicals and exams. At my age, you should be getting checked regularly, and I made a point of doing it. In 2013, I had elevated PSA levels and I had to do a biopsy, and they found cancer in my prostate. They told me then that it was considered a slow growing cancer and they placed me on what they call “active surveillance” and I repeated the PSA test, which is just blood work, and then got another biopsy a bit later on. In June of 2015, my PSA level had doubled and another biopsy found that the cancer was indeed growing. After a consultation with my doctor, the decision was made to go in for a robotic prostectomy. We set the date for Feb, 10; it wasn’t a rush.

On Going Public With His Cancer Diagnosis: I had a lot of reservations about saying anything at all about my diagnosis. I really contemplated not saying anything at all. When I did decide that I was going to say something, I decided to say it within 10 days before surgery. I didn’t want people calling me and asking me about my condition. I didn’t want all that focus on me for an extraordinary length of time. It would have put a cloud over my Thanksgiving, Christmas and my daughter’s wedding. People were going to find out anyway, is what I really thought, so I might as well do some good and shed some light on the awkwardness of talking about it. I also thought there are a lot of men out there who are going to hear about me. There are a lot of statistics that show that one out of 28 men will die from prostate cancer and one in seven will develop prostate cancer. There are a lot of men out there who are in the exact same shoes as me. They’re hesitant to even go in and get checked. I just wanted to put myself out there. Up here in Canada, it has resulted in a huge influx of men getting checked. I think it’s an illness that a lot of men are reluctant to talk about, reluctant to go in and get checked. They disregard the statistics and percentages of how likely they are to get prostate cancer. I think it was good when I came out publicly.

On His Message: Ultimately, I’m hoping that my voice may cause men to get checked and save some lives in the years ahead. There are no symptoms of prostate cancer. If I hadn’t been getting checked on a regular basis, I wouldn’t have known. That’s where men make the mistake. They say, “I feel good, so I’m not going to get checked.” If it happened to a healthy guy like me, who is physically fit and whose dad lived to be 90, it can happen to anybody. It’s easy to get checked with simple blood work. All men in their 50s, or even 40s and younger, should get checked. Prostate cancer can manifest and then grow for years without you knowing it. By the time you do get checked, it’s too late and it could spread all over to the rest of your body. Early detection of prostate cancer can result in being completely cured. If you get it early, they can remove it and you can live a normal life.

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