My name's John Wu. I'm 73 years old. And about a year ago I was diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer. What triggered me going to the doctors was, the year before that, started with some urgency and also some hesitancy on urination. And I thought I could overcome that. So as the time went down, it increasingly became more difficult. Finally, I decided to go see a doctor. My internist said, "Well, you're pretty healthy, but we'll do a blood test." So you look at the results, everything looked great, except one. That's PSA number. Said, "Uh-oh. Now I'm going to have to send you to a specialist." Which was a urologist. A urologist that did further test and confirmed that results says, "Well, we're going to do some more test." So MRI. And then they look at it, say, "Well, you're going to need some pylori test. So further confirmed.

And then I did some biopsy and the results are showing the Gleason score, couple of nines and some eights, a lot of sevens. So the determination is you have stage four cancer. I kind of released the information gradually so I didn't want to stress everybody out, especially when it was diagnosed around Thanksgiving time. And so I didn't want everybody over concerned with my health this holiday time. But it was a nice occasion when my relatives or brothers and our relatives are getting together. And at the very last day when I was ready to come home, I was in California, then I'd let them know what the situation was and I assured them that I'm okay, don't worry too much. And I know what I'm doing actually. I rely on my doctors. I don't know what I'm doing.

But then I was referred to oncologist, the radiation oncologist and the medical oncologist. And so they mapped out some plans and I agreed to it. So started the therapy about seven months ago. And started the first was the ADT and a couple months later then the radiation kicked in. So I went through 42 doses. It's about eight and a half weeks, and after that the results all look great. And they did further tests on the PSA, they came down dramatically. So my medical oncologist decided to add another medication on me, which I'm taking right now, in addition to the injection every three months. Then after that and results were great, they were satisfied and that they were happy. And so we went down to a second drug, [inaudible 00:04:01], and I'm taking it every day orally. And for the whole thing I was told to continue for two years. And the assessment so far is a very good. Everybody's happy, I'm happy.

There's one spot still within the pelvis, it was outside of prostate, and that's why they wanted me to go through this two and a half years of therapies. A half years already gone so I got two years left.

The last PSA test, it was within a normal range and just a titch above one. So I'm grateful I had a chance going through this. And part of my journey is to meet up with a fellow man, talk about some issues, and hopefully preventing any other cases that if a man could avoid it by having an early prevention. Just a simple blood test, a PSA can indicate it in addition to the chronical symptoms, but don't wait too long. The chance of a cure is a lot higher, over 90% if you discover early.

What else? I have to think about the loved ones, friends, and everybody's affected. So I will say it's not one person's decision. It affects a lot of people. So I know I'm blessed, still talking, and telling people, "Hey, don't wait. Be proactive and get it done early."

I truly believe a support network is very important, at least for me. People wanted to help. They wanted to take me to the doctors or they wanted to buy groceries or things. "You don't feel good, we can do things for you." By being fortunate, I could do a lot of things on my own. Basically I'm self-reliant. But still, for some people who couldn't do it, I would say definitely you need a network.

My regret is not getting it done earlier. So I would tell the viewers and also my friends, get it checked. It's a very simple blood test. And it doesn't hurt or anything. And if a discovered early it's over 90% a cure. And in life, you don't have a whole lot of things that have a better odds over 90%. And this is one of them. You have over 90% of odds you can safely live for a long life.

So again, I don't know, I think it's genetic. Could it be environmental? We don't know. My doctor talked about should we do a genetic testing everything. But at the time, the decision was just to hold it off. And if we need, we do it later.

Keep a positive attitude. I think that improves your quality of your life and expands the health span. And also prioritize personal affair. And there are some issues more important than others, especially when a person is in distress during the treatment. You don't want to deal with a lot of less important things. Take care of the most important things first. And second, I think at least one more thing is get your PSA done early. Early prevention saves lives.