http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2012/03/marine-corps-general-robert-milstead-prostate-cancer-032912w/
By Dan Lamothe - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Mar 29, 2012 7:12:50 EDT
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 wasn?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.
The general described his emotional diagnosis and recovery during an interview here March 21, just weeks after undergoing surgery Feb. 28 to remove his prostate, a gland that is part of the male reproductive system. He did so hoping to raise awareness about the benefits of annual physicals and regular screening. He?d sought the latter because both his father and paternal grandfather also had been treated for the disease.
?This is a huge fraternity,? he said. ?You?ve got a better chance as a man of getting prostate cancer than you do as a female of getting breast cancer. It?s not a club I ever wanted to join, but I?m a card-carrying member now.?
The toughest days
Milstead, a career helicopter pilot, acknowledged it weighed on him when his PSA score raised flags. Initially, he was given medication in case he had an infection, but after several weeks, his PSA number had spiked again. His doctor suggested a biopsy be conducted at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Bethesda, Md.
?I?m like, ?Oh man. Nothing good ever happens in the urology department. Nobody is smiling up there. It?s all old people, and it?s plumbing,? ? he said, describing his misgivings at the time.
Four of the 12 samples tested came back positive for cancer, he said. The aggressiveness of prostate cancer is measured with the Gleason Scale, which assigns a score of 2 to minor cases and 10 to the most severe. Milstead?s score was 9.
Treatment can include full removal of the gland, radiation or hormone therapy, said Milstead?s surgeon, Army Lt. Col. Stephen Brassell. Given the aggressiveness of the cancer and the general?s physical fitness and relative youth, it was determined that surgery was the best option.
?At first I wasn?t totally in denial, but I was saying, ?Well, maybe there?s other ways of dealing with this other than cutting it out,? because there are all the post-operative challenges of your plumbing and hydraulics and all those sorts of things,? Milstead said. ?But when you?re dealing with cancer, everything changes. This was no kidding, varsity-level stuff.?
The most difficult part was breaking the news to family, he said. When the biopsy results were completed, his wife, Suzanne, was in Oakland, Calif., visiting their oldest child, Christy Buckham, 32, and her newborn girl, Mia. He waited about a week to join his wife and break the news in person.
?Those eight or nine days,? he said, ?were some of the toughest of my life.?
Milstead said he was impressed with the medical care at Walter Reed, and has relied on Suzanne, his four children and his Catholic faith for perspective. He has started to work partial days, and jokingly referred to a catheter removed two weeks after surgery as ?evil incarnate.?
The general also has received encouragement from other Marines who had prostate cancer, including Col. Bradley Shumaker, the executive assistant to Lt. Gen. Richard Tryon, deputy commandant for plans, policies and operations.
Shumaker, who had his prostate removed Jan. 31, said senior officers frequently prefer to keep their personal lives private, focusing instead on junior Marines. By speaking out, Milstead will encourage others to get screening and know their family medical history, the colonel said.
?It doesn?t surprise me that someone like him would come forward and say, ?Hey, this happened to me,? ? Shumaker said. ?It?s putting a face to the story and letting others know that it?s survivable, but it needs to be identified and treated ? not ignored.?
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