Marine general opens up about battle with prostate cancer

Marine general opens up about battle with prostate cancer
By Dan LaMothe
Marine Corps Times

 MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. – In the midst of planning a complicated drawdown in forces, the Marine Corps' three-star manpower chief received startling news: He had cancer. Not just any cancer, either.

Lt. Gen. Robert Milstead, deputy commandant of manpower and reserve affairs, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that could spread and kill him if it weren't treated quickly. He received the news in January after a battery of tests that began in November with his annual physical, he said. The score on his prostate-specific antigen blood test, or PSA, had increased in the previous year, raising the prospect that something was wrong.

 "Once they told me, 'You've got cancer,' I said, 'Whoa,' " Milstead said. "The C-word can be intimidating. The range of options goes from denial to acceptance, and I think I was able to jump pretty quickly up to, 'OK, I've got cancer. How am I going to deal with this?' " Milstead, 60, is far from alone.

One in six men will get prostate cancer, and one in 33 will die from it, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 Recovery frequently depends on a key factor that worked in Milstead's favor: early detection. read more here