“I’ve had prostate cancer for six or seven years,” he says. “When you have got it you monitor it and you have to be careful it doesn’t spread. But if it is contained in the prostate it’s no big deal.”
“They come and say you have cancer of the prostate and then they say you can have it zapped, you can have it snipped but you are not a candidate for that. You are waitful watching.”
“Many, many men die from it but it’s one of the cancers that is totally treatable so I have ‘waitful watching’. I am examined regularly and it’s just contained, it’s not spreading. I’ve not had any treatment.”
“I have heard of people dying from prostate cancer, and they are the unlucky ones, the people who didn’t know they had got it and it went on the rampage. But at my age if it is diagnosed its not life threatening.”
We’re certainly glad to hear that it’s all under control.
McKellen will return to the big screen this friday for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and is in talks to reprise his role as Magneto in Bryan Singer’s upcoming film, X-Men: Days of Future Past.
UPDATE #1: Sir Ian McKellen’s agent, Chris Andrews, told ABC News today that the 73-year-old actor does not have prostate cancer!
“No, he does not have prostate cancer. … That was taken out of context and from an interview from years ago,” Andrews said.
CLD Communications, which represents McKellen in the U.K., also confirmed that the story “was taken out of context.”
UPDATE #2: It looks like Ian McKellen’s comments were not taken out of context at all. The actor just posted the following on his official site:
There have been new reports in the press of the old news that I have early prostate cancer. This was diagnosed six or seven years ago. There is no cause for alarm. I am examined regularly and the cancer is contained. I’ve not needed any treatment.
— Ian McKellen, 12 December 2012
(Photo Credit: WENN.com)
