Actor Louis Gossett Jr is the latest celebrity to divulge that he has contracted prostate cancer, a disease that afflicts mostly older men. Actor Dennis Hopper was recently in the news about his 10-year fight with the disease.
Gossett, 73, is best known for his Oscar-winning role as the tough drill instructor in 1983′s ”An Officer and a Gentleman,” in which he co-starred with Richard Gere and Debra Winger.
Gossett, whose cancer is in its early stages, said he decided to go public to draw attention to the disease among African-Americans, who often don’t seek regular examinations for the disease.
Outside of skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in American men, according to the National Cancer Institute.
More than 186,000 men in the United States were diagnosed in 2008, and 192,280 cases were diagnosed last year. Some 27,360 men died from the disease last year.
Yet prostate cancer is treatable and typically grows very slowly.
The majority of men with low-grade, early prostate cancer live for a decade or more after their diagnosis.
Even without treatment, many of these men will live with prostate cancer until they eventually die of some other, unrelated cause.
The actor said he has begun an intensive treatment program, so that he can resume his acting schedule, and work with his Eracism Foundation.
“I count this diagnosis among the many challenges I have faced in my life and overcome. I expect this to be no different,” Gossett said in a statement.
Gossett has appeared in more than 60 movies and TV shows, including the recent science fiction series “Stargate SG-1″ and has three movies coming up including Tyler Perry’s April comedy release “Why Did I Get Married, Too.”
Gossett’s memoir “An Actor and a Gentleman” is due to be published in May and he is currently promoting a PBS documentary that he executive produced called “For Love Of Liberty: The Story of America’s Black Patriots” to be shown later in February.
