Sen. Thom Tillis Says He Will Undergo Surgery for Prostate Cancer | Eastern NC Now

Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the The Daily Wire. The author of this post is Eric Quintanar.

    Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), the junior senator from North Carolina since 2015, will undergo surgery to treat prostate cancer.

    Tillis, 60, made the announcement in a written statement Monday morning and said that his prognosis is good. "Next week, I will have surgery in North Carolina to treat prostate cancer. I am in the hands of outstanding medical professionals and expect to make a full recovery," he said.

    "I am blessed that my cancer was detected relatively early, and I can't emphasize enough how important routine screenings are, regardless of how healthy you think you are. I had no symptoms and would have never imagined I had cancer. My prognosis is good because I went to my annual physical and received a PSA test, which led to a biopsy and eventually my diagnosis. Early detection can truly save lives," he concluded.

    Before he was elected to the U.S. Senate, Tillis served as the speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives for several years beginning in 2011 until he left to join the U.S Senate. In the 2014 midterms, Tillis defeated incumbent Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC), who was running for a second term. In 2020, Tillis defeated Democratic challenger Cal Cunningham, a former North Carolina state senator.

    According to the American Cancer Society, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men after skin cancer, and about one man out of every eight men will receive a prostate cancer diagnosis during their lifetime. The organization estimates that about 248,530 Americans will receive a prostate cancer diagnosis in 2021.

    "Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in American men, behind only lung cancer," according to the American Cancer Society. "About 1 man in 41 will die of prostate cancer. Prostate cancer can be a serious disease, but most men diagnosed with prostate cancer do not die from it. In fact, more than 3.1 million men in the United States who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point are still alive today."