‘Star Trek’ Legend William Shatner, 92, Who Was Once Mistakenly Diagnosed With Prostate Cancer, Reveals Biggest Hollywood Regret

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Speaking to Hollywood Reporter about his time working on “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier,” Shatner said, “I wish that I’d had the backing and the courage to do the things I felt I needed to do. My concept was, “‘Star Trek’ goes in search of God,” and management said, ‘Well, who’s God? We’ll alienate the nonbeliever, so, no, we can’t do God.'”

Shatner, who also helped directed the movie, the continued, “And then somebody said, ‘What about an alien who thinks they’re God?’ Then it was a series of my inabilities to deal with the management and the budget.

“I failed. In my mind, I failed horribly.”

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He explained further, “When I’m asked, ‘What do you regret the most?,’ I regret not being equipped emotionally to deal with a large motion picture.

“So in the absence of my power, the power vacuum filled with people that didn’t make the decisions I would’ve made.”

It’s ironic Shatner has opened up about feeling regret as he is known for previously saying, “Regret is the worst human emotion. If you took another road, you might have fallen off a cliff. I’m content.”

Regardless, of what Shatner thinks of regret, it’s important to understand that it’s natural to feel all different types of emotions amid our lives.

Meanwhile, as Shatner recounted the “Star Trek” film receiving criticism after being released, he insisted the “blame” is “one me.”

He explained, “I wanted granite [rock creatures in the final scene] to explode out of the mountain. The special effects guy said, ‘I can build you a suit that’s on fire and smoke comes out.’ I said, ‘Great, how much will that cost?’ They said, ‘$250,000 a suit.’ ‘Can you make 10 suits?’ He said, ‘Yeah.'”

“That’s $2.5 million. You’ve got a $30 million budget. You sure you want to spend [it on that]?” Shatner recounted thinking, adding, “Those are the practical decisions.” In the end, this didn’t work out due to mechanical issues.

William Shatner’s Prostate Cancer Scare

William Shatner previously experienced a cancer misdiagnosis, and it was something that truly changed the way the beloved actor looked at life.

Back in 2018, he wrote for NBC, “I have wandered aimlessly trying to comprehend death, realizing I could never understand it. But in 2016 I had an entirely different encounter with death.

“I was told by a doctor I had a terminal disease. That I was going to die.”

In 2016, an 85-year-old Shatner and his then-wife Elizabeth decided to undergo “an extremely sensitive test” that looks for a cancer-related protein after reading about the practice in a magazine. That’s when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

“My regular doctor explained that prostate cancer sometimes is very aggressive and sometimes is so benign you’ll die of something else long before it kills you,” he wrote.

“Kills me? That couldn’t be happening. To find out which type it was, he took my PSA, a marker for this disease. Until then it had been at one or two, well within safe limits. ‘It’s ten,’ he reported. ‘That is an aggressive cancer.’ Ten! My body had betrayed me.”

But his body, in fact, had not. After reading that testosterone supplements could affect his results, he decided to stop taking the supplements per his doctor’s request.

“Three months later I took another PSA test. It had gone down to one. One,” he wrote. “The doctor guessed that the testosterone had resulted in the elevated PSA level. I didn’t bother taking the sensitive test. As the cancer specialists explained to Elizabeth and me, we get cancer cells all the time and usually your body eats them up. Your killer cells, T-cells, attack and destroy them. The body gets cancer all the time and eliminates it, but that test is so sensitive it picked up the hint of it and combined with the PSA reading convinced me I was dying.”

T cells are a part of the immune system and develop from stem cells in the bone marrow. They help protect the body from infection and may help fight cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute. So, while it’s uncertain exactly why his first test came back positive for prostate cancer, it is accurate to say that T cells may help fight off cancerous cells if they arrive.

Needless to say, Shatner’s misdiagnosis left him with a lot more than a cancer scare.

“During those three months I was living with my death sentence, I spent considerable time thinking about my life, about the lessons I’ve learned, the places I’ve been, the miracles I’ve seen, all of those encounters and events and experiences that have been wrapped together into one great burst of energy called life,” he wrote.

“And based on that I want to share with you, for the first time, my secret to live a good, long life: Don’t die. That’s it; that’s the secret. Simply keep living and try not to slow down.”

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How to Cope With Complex & Changing Emotions

When a stressful life event occurs, people may react with a range of different (and quickly changing) emotions. This is completely normal.

“The way people respond is very variable,” Psychiatrist Dr. Lori Plutchik told SurvivorNet in an earlier interview. “Very much consistent with how they respond to stresses and challenges in their life in general.”

Dr. Plutchik On Responding to Stress:

Dr. Plutchik spoke about how people react after a cancer diagnosis which can be a huge range of emotions from fear to anger to determination. However, the conclusion remains the same no matter what stressor someone may be dealing with: your emotions are valid and seeking mental health help may look different for every person.

“People have a range of emotions when they’re diagnosed with cancer,” Dr. Plutchik explained.

“And they can include fear, anger … and these emotions tend to be fluid. They can recede and return based on where someone is in the process. Going through a cancer diagnosis is just the beginning of a complicated, complicated process.”

SN & You Presents Mental Health: Coping With Emotions

Dr. Plutchik also explained that the patient, or person going through the stressful event, should accept that emotions will be fluid. You may feel fine one day and then feel a massive wave of stress the next. It’s also important for those you look to for support whether that’s a therapist, friends and family, or both to understand the fluidity of stress-related emotions.

If a stressful event is affecting how you think and feel, it may be time to seek some sort of mental health treatment. This could mean traditional talk therapy, medication, changing lifestyle habits (like exercise and diet), seeking out a support group, or many other approaches.

Understanding Prostate Cancer

If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, it’s important to remember that most types of prostate cancers are treatable. According to the National Cancer Institute, the five-year survival rate of prostate cancer in the U.S. is 97.1%. There is, however, a small number of men whose type of prostate cancer may become unresponsive to treatment, for example, when cancer cells develop a resistance hormone therapy, the treatment may no longer work.

Prostate cancer begins in the prostate the walnut-shaped gland located between the rectum and bladder that produces the fluid that nourishes sperm. Outside of skin cancers, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in American men with about one in eight men being diagnosed with this disease during his lifetime.

It’s important to remember a prostate cancer diagnosis is not always preceded by symptoms. And even when symptoms do occur, they can be inconsistent and hard to pinpoint.

“Prostate cancer is a very odd disease in that it doesn’t have a particular symptom,” Dr. Edwin Posadas, director of translational oncology and the medical director of the Urologic Oncology Program at Cedars-Sinai, told SurvivorNet.

After the Diagnosis: “What Did I Do Wrong?”

Still, it’s important to note changes in urinary function, like urinating more or less often or waking up at night to go more than usual, could be a sign of prostate cancer. So, even if you think there’s nothing to worry about, always talk to your doctor about changes to your health when they occur.

There are many different treatment options for both early and later-stage prostate cancer including active surveillance, watchful waiting, surgery, radiation, cryotherapy, hormone therapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy and targeted therapy. The disease is one where doctors may have differing opinions on the best treatment path to take, so don’t hesitate to ask lots of questions and seek out multiple opinions.

Second (& Third) Opinions Matter When Deciding Between Surgery or Radiation

“I think it behooves the patient to have multiple discussions or second opinions, not only by the urologist who did the biopsy and diagnosed that man, but also with other surgeons and other radiation oncologist just to get a very circumspect view of what the treatment options are,” Dr. Jim Hu, a urologic oncologist at Weill Cornell Medicine, told SurvivorNet. “Oftentimes, I think patients need to understand that our health system is based a lot on fee-for-service medicine.

“And so therefore, a lot of physicians, I think, who are very well intentioned, will believe that their treatment is best for that particular man,” Dr. Hu added.

Prostate Cancer Screening Guidelines

It’s unclear if the benefits of prostate cancer screening outweigh the risks for most men. Nevertheless, screening can be life-saving, and it’s important to discuss the pros and cons of screening and your risk factors for the disease with your doctor.

The American Cancer Society (ACS) recommends “men have a chance to make an informed decision with their health care provider about whether to be screened for prostate cancer” after “getting information about the uncertainties, risks, and potential benefits of prostate cancer screening.”

The ACS says the discussion about prostate cancer screening should take place at:

• Age 50 for men who are at average risk of prostate cancer and are expected to live at least 10 more years.
• Age 45 for men at high risk of developing prostate cancer. This includes African Americans and men who have a first-degree relative (father or brother) diagnosed with prostate cancer at an early age (younger than age 65).
• Age 40 for men at even higher risk (those with more than one first-degree relative who had prostate cancer at an early age).

When Should I Get Tested for Prostate Cancer?

Prostate cancer screening methods look for possible signs of the disease, but they can’t determine for sure if you have cancer. A prostate biopsy is the only way to confirm if the patient has prostate cancer.

Screening generally involves a PSA (prostate-specific antigen) test and a digital rectal exam to feel the prostate gland. The prostate-specific antigen is a protein secreted by the prostate gland, large amounts of which can indicate prostate cancer.

It’s slightly uncomfortable but painless, and takes less than 30 seconds,” Dr. Posadas said of these methods. “The amount of information that is gained from that is tremendous, and it can be a life-and-death type decision that is made.”

Though the PSA test is not always accurate and an elevated PSA test does not always mean you have prostate cancer, our experts maintain that these tests are helpful. Make sure to discuss your options with your doctors and decide what screening should look like for you.

The Importance of Early Detection

Men with a family history of prostate cancer are at a higher risk of developing prostate cancer, so a doctor may opt to begin testing in the mid-40s.

Men of certain ethnicities who are at a higher risk of getting the disease may also want to consider screening early. For example, the incidence of prostate cancer in African American men is 60% higher, and they are two to three times more likely to die from the disease.

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There’s No One Definitive Symptom for Prostate Cancer, But There Are Clues

Screening is typically done with the PSA test. If a man has an elevated PSA level, he has somewhere between a 20% to 40% chance of having cancer.

The PSA test is not a perfect test, says Dr. Posadas, director of the Translational Oncology Program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

The PSA test is more controversial when it comes to using it to detect prostate cancer in older men. This is because most men will develop prostate cancer at some point in their lives if they live long enough, Dr. Geoffrey Sonn, assistant professor of urology at Stanford Medicine, previously told SurvivorNet.

But most men will not die from prostate cancer.

In addition, because prostate cancer is such a slow-growing type of cancer, it is much more likely that older men will die of something other than prostate cancer.

Getting Tested If You Have A Family History of Prostate Cancer

Family history can matter a lot when it comes to prostate cancer.

“It’s estimated that five to ten percent of prostate cancer can run in families,” Dr. James Brooks, Chief of Urologic Oncology at Stanford Medicine, told SurvivorNet.

If you have a close relative who has had prostate cancer, such as a brother or father, the risk you will develop prostate cancer in your lifetime is almost double.

If You Have a Family History of Prostate Cancer, Get Screened Early

Men with a family history tend to get prostate cancer at a younger age, so Dr. Brooks recommends getting screened, in some cases as early as age 45, by having a PSA test.

Early detection can help reduce the risk of cancer spreading to other organs. The National Comprehensive Cancer Network also recommends germline genetic testing for men with high-risk prostate cancer.

But, screening can also open up a whole can of worms, finding cancers that are slow growing and may not need aggressive treatment. Still, when most men are told they have prostate cancer, they want it out. And that’s understandable.

What Are Your Treatment Options?

After your care team has all of the information (PSA, prostate exam, and the results of any imaging scans), your doctor will use it to categorize your cancer into one of several groups, called risk groups.

These include:

• Low risk
• Intermediate risk
• High risk

There are several subgroups within these categories that your doctor may mention. Which risk group your cancer falls into will determine what treatment options may be best for you. Men with low-risk and very low-risk disease may be candidates for active surveillance, an approach that closely monitors the cancer for changes and helps men avoid potential complications from more aggressive treatment.

On the other hand, men with high-risk disease may be treated with radiation therapy and androgen deprivation therapy (hormonal therapy).

In addition to your risk group, your doctor will also consider other factors, including:

• Your age
• Your overall health
• Your life expectancy
• Your goals for treatment

A combination of all of this information will allow your treating team to discuss all of the options that are available for treating your specific cancer.

Common treatment options for men with prostate cancer include:

• Surgery
• Radiation therapy
• Active surveillance
• Combination radiation therapy with hormonal therapy
• Surgery followed by radiation therapy

The reality is that most treatments are effective at curing the cancer. However, they each have different side effects that your doctors should discuss with you.

We encourage and recommend that if you are diagnosed with prostate cancer, you get an opinion from a urologist (surgeon) and a radiation oncologist to hear all of your options before choosing a treatment. We also recommend you get a second opinion from another institution.

Given the many treatment choices, doctors at some centers may do things quite differently than others.

We believe it is important to understand all of your options and hearing from other doctors at different institutions is helpful. The good news is that we have a lot of great options to treat men with this cancer. It can sometimes be overwhelming to pick what is best for you.

Questions to Ask Your Doctor

Here are some questions you may consider asking your doctor about your risk of developing prostate cancer:

• How does my family history affect my risk of developing prostate cancer?
• Are their tests available to determine my genetic risk of developing prostate cancer?
• Based on my history, genetic test results and other factors, when do you recommend I begin screening for prostate cancer?
• How can I prepare for prostate cancer screening?

The Challenge of Deciding When to Treat Prostate Cancer

Contributing: SurvivorNet Staff

Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.

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