WEST CHESTER, Ohio — Reverend Michael Bailey is grateful to be alive.
“I’m still here,” Bailey said. “Five years ago, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer and 8 out of 12 cells were cancerous.”
Bailey's physician, Dr. Nilesh Patil with the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center, said Bailey’s cancer was aggressive.
“In prostate cancer that is not surprising. One of the reasons why this is a cancer where we advocate screening is because there is no symptoms of this condition,” Dr. Patil said.
The news was shocking to Bailey, who had yearly physical exams and bloodwork done since he was 30.
“To get a high number, it was shocking,” Bailey said. “However, you accept the fact it is what it is.”
After his diagnosis, Bailey shared a dance with his wife in the parking lot not knowing what was to come.
“I would say we were operating on faith, knowing that the end result was going to be positive, so why not, why not go ahead and get your dance on,” Bailey said.
Bailey decided to have his prostate removed in 2019. In August of this year, he got the prognosis he had been waiting for.
“The news was that I was cancer-free,” he said.
Patil, who treats hundreds of men for prostate cancer, has been by Bailey’s side for the past five years.
“I’m here during a very difficult phase of most men’s lives,” he said. “Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in most of the world if you rule out skin cancers, and so the incidences of prostate cancer is pretty high.”
Black men, Patil said, are disproportionately affected by prostate cancer than White men.
“We do have literature which is accumulating as we speak in terms of that Black men get cancer early, Black men can get cancer which is more aggressive, but in terms of the access to health care, in terms of the treatments and the outcomes, so these are all the disparities that we typically see African American men and the Caucasian population,” Patil said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that Black men are more likely to get prostate cancer and are twice as likely to die from prostate cancer than other men. The CDC further states that Black men get prostate cancer at a younger age and tend to have more advanced disease when it is found.
“Getting a blood test is probably the most important part of the screening because we do have a test that can alert you to if something is abnormal,” Patil said. “If you catch this disease early, you can treat it early, you can cure it early. And if you don’t diagnose it, the consequences to your lifestyle to your quality of life are quite detrimental.”
Patil noted men ages 50-70 should get screened for prostate cancer. He said if someone has a first-degree relative (father, uncle or grandfather) who has had prostate cancer they should start bloodwork at the age of 40.
Bailey hopes his story encourages men to get screened for prostate cancer early.
“If you love life, you’re better off being here than being somewhere else,” Bailey said. “We only have a season and we need not to expedite it because we failed to do those checkups.”
Bailey said he’s thankful for Patil and the nurses and staff at the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center who helped him through this process.
“I’m just forever grateful that the life I had prior to cancer, I still have that life,” said Bailey.
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