Prostate Cancer Battle: It's Strictly Your Decision

"Michael, you have prostate cancer."  My physician continued to speak-- but I was too shocked to hear what he said.  I was convinced that my life was over.  How long did I have?  Weeks?  Months? A year?

I staggered out of his office, drove home to tell my wife, Arlen, and, with her encouragement, started the most important research project of my life.  This book is the result of that research.  Prostate Cancer is the most common cancer in America, second only to lung disease, as the most common cause of death.  It has been diagnosed much more frequently since screening by a new blood test, Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) was introduced in 1988.  Twenty-five percent of men in their 30's have microscopic prostate cancer.  In their 50's their percentage rises to forty percent.  Some of those cancer cells remain dormant, but some grow and expand ultimately beyond the prostate shell. 

Early in my business career, I was fortunate to be hired as a trouble shooter by television host Art Linkletter.  Art had several distressed multi-million dollar business ventures.  One was in Arizona, a collection of motels, a rental complex and private airport, suffering during the mid-60's when Arizona was over built.  Another was a large Southern California retirement development.  In analyzing these and other new business opportunities for Art, I learned to perform "due diligence" before formulating a recommendation with strength and conviction.  This patient, objective approach has served me well throughout my business career.

I took the same approach in dealing with my Prostate Cancer dilemma.  I developed a two month timetable to research every aspect of this life threatening subject.  I utilized the Internet, libraries, book stores, professional specialists, friends and other contacts who had faced a similar challenge and were willing to share the extremely sensitive details with me. 

I was very frustrated by the lack of published information that could aid my research.  Eighty percent of the current articles and books were written by physicians for physicians.  I have an MBA and have been a college business professor for thirty-three years, but this was harder to understand than the legalese written by and for lawyers.  The myriad of technical terms, charts, and diagrams used were impossible to comprehend.  One physician explained to me that he would never "dumb down" a written presentation just to make it clear to cancer patients.

The other twenty-percent of the written information was anecdotal in nature from an individual patient who had enjoyed success with a particular treatments.  Also, since the writer's medical "statistics" are customized to that individual, they may not apply to many of the readers.

I made a plan to identify and access several dozen prostate cancer specialists throughout America that were the best and the brightest.  I found most of them to be extremely knowledgeable as well as very skilled, persuasive marketers.  This was especially true when I began to expand my interviews beyond the medical professionals in my HMO. 

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Art Linkletter
8484 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 205
Beverly Hills, California 90211
May 8, 2001

I have known and worked with Michael O’Hara during the past half-century, in a wide variety of endeavors.  I never thought I’d be recommending his research work on such a startling subject as Prostate cancer!

Like many other seniors, I have worried about getting this deadly disease, and, as President of the Center for Aging at UCLA, I have talked about it with some of the top doctors in the nation.

It is a puzzling, fatal, common cancer, and as Mike so clearly and simply states – “It is not a situation where ‘one size fits all.’”

In this book, carefully and painstakingly researched, Mike has presented many options available to you, depending on your cancer “statistics” and your personal temperament.

This is must reading for every man who discovers (early, I hope) that he has prostate cancer.

Congratulations, Mike; this is a winner and far more important than all the International success you have had in the volleyball history of the Olympics.

Art Linkletter