Remembering Dennis Hopper
- Two-time Academy Award nominee Dennis Hopper died in 2010 from prostate cancer at age 74.
- Hopper’s first smash hit was Easy Rider, which he directed and wrote with co-star Peter Fonda about two pot-smoking, drug-dealing hippies on a motorcycle trip. Other famous roles include starring turns in Hoosiers and Blue Velvet.
- About 1 man in 9 will be diagnosed with the disease in his lifetime. Aside from skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in American men, according to The American Cancer Society.
Actor Dennis Hopper starred in some of the seminal films of the last century, but much of the two-time Academy Award nominee’s life and career was topsy-turvy. Married five times and known for his alcohol and drug abuse, Hopper got his start in Hollywood starring in two films with the original Hollywood bad boy James Dean.
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Hopper’s Cancer Battle
Although prostate cancer often exhibits no symptoms, Hopper was hospitalized for stomach pain and flu-like symptoms before being diagnosed in October 2009. This was a recurrence of the disease which, according to the New York Times, Hopper said had been first diagnosed ten years earlier.
The cancer had spread to his bones and he died on May 29, 2010 at his home in the Los Angeles beach community of Venice, surrounded by family and friends, family friend Alex Hitz told the Associated Press.
Hopper was appearing in a television version of the movie Crash at the time. Weeks before his death, Hopper looked frail when he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, surrounded by friends including Jack Nicholson, actor Viggo Mortensen, and Blue Velvet director, David Lynch.
An Overview of Prostate Cancer Surgery
Screening for Prostate Cancer
About 1 man in 9 will be diagnosed with the disease in his lifetime. Aside from skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in American men, according to The American Cancer Society. In many cases, prostate cancer is slow-growing but when the disease is advanced, spreading to other parts of the body, it's called metastatic.
Prostate cancer is typically detected via prostate-specific antigen (PSA) tests. This screening test measures PSA in the blood, which may indicate the presence of prostate cancer. For men with an average risk of prostate cancer, it’s advised by the American Cancer Society (ACS) to begin screening at 50 for the disease; men with an elevated risk of developing prostate cancer should start screening at 45.
Dr. James Brooks, a urologic oncologist at Stanford Medicine, says in an earlier interview that this is a slow-growing cancer. “Prostate cancer, even when aggressive, is typically slow-growing," he says. "So the possibility that it could become fatal past the age of 70 is quite low. Still, whether you continue to screen past age 70 is completely up to you and your doctor. In prostate cancer, there are sometimes differing viewpoints and this is one of those times."
"However, if you are at high-risk (meaning you have a family history or are African-American) many doctors say you should have an initial screening well before 50some recommend starting at age 40because the risk is about two to three times higher than average," says Dr. Brooks.
The PSA Blood Test and a Rectal Exam are Vital for Prostate Cancer Screening
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