Co. Sen. Michael Bennet Has Prostate Cancer

DENVER, CO – By Mike Littwin for The Colorado Independent. When Michael Bennet’s office called to say he had a big announcement to make, I assumed he would be confirming what everyone already knew — that the Colorado senator would be joining John Hickenlooper and the rest of the ever-expanding Democratic field running for president. And, also, that though he understood he would be a long shot, he figured at this point, without a clear favorite, that it could leave an opening for someone like him — the umpteenth senator to announce.

When Bennet got to the phone, that is, in fact, what he did say. But it wasn’t all he said or nearly the most important thing he said and definitely not the most scary thing he said. Which was this:

Just as he had finally become comfortable with his decision to run, he went to get a physical and received very discomfiting news from his doctor — he has prostate cancer.

His PSA was high. The biopsy showed malignancy. The doctors recommended that, at his age, surgery was the best course of action. His family agreed. The risk, he was told, was low. John Kerry had survived, cancer free, the same surgery in 2003 and two weeks later was back on the campaign trail, on his way to winning the Democratic nomination. And so …

And so, now Bennet is still committed to running for president if — and it’s an important if, but an if that Bennet says he’s at peace with — he will be cancer free. The surgery to remove the prostate gland is scheduled for soon after the congressional spring recess, which begins on April 11.

When I asked Bennet how he was taking all this — the cancer, not the presidential bid — he said he was OK. “I’m too busy to really sit back and think about it,” he said, “and that’s probably the best thing.”

But it’s one thing to be healthy and make the grueling, unforgiving run for president when no one is actually begging you to do it and quite another to make that decision when you’ve been told you have cancer.

Bennet explains that he decided to get into the race after finishing his book — “The Land of the Flickering Light”, which comes out in June — and realizing that no one in the field was talking about the reasons for the dysfunction he sees on a daily basis in Congress and how the money and corruption there have put our republican democracy at real risk. As he puts it, after 10 years on the job, “I am shocked every day” by how little gets done there.

“The idea was to announce sometime in April,” Bennet said. “That was the plan. We hired some staff. We interviewed people for positions in New Hampshire and Iowa. And then I went for the physical. In my last physical, my PSA was high. They did a biopsy, and it was clear. But this time, it was not clear.

“That was 2-3 weeks ago. I was in San Francisco. Then the question became: Is this still something I wanted to do? I could answer the question in two ways. Maybe this would be a good time to give it up and go do something else. And the other was whether I could continue to run. I found myself hoping that I could run. That’s what the doctors have said. That’s what John Kerry and others learned.”

One in nine men is diagnosed with prostate cancer over a lifetime, but only 1 in 39 will die from the disease, which is the third most common cause of cancer deaths among American men. In 2017, the American Cancer Society estimated that more than 160,000 men would be diagnosed that year and 26,730 would die. Many of the deaths come when the disease has never been diagnosed.

“I’m 54,” Bennet said. “That’s relatively young. It seemed to make sense to have the prostate removed … I’d be recuperating for 7-10 days and would need some rest after that. The hope is then I’ll be cancer-free and able to move on. If I’m not cancer free, then I’d have to make another decision.”

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