Gandalf the Wizard’s Prostate Cancer


Even the “the greatest spirit and the wisest” wizard sometimes has to deal with health issues.

Sir Ian McKellen, 73, who has played the wizard Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy as well as the upcoming Hobbit series, told the UK’s Daily Mail that he has had prostate cancer for 6 or 7 years.



Sir Ian’s decision to forgo surgery or radiation treatment for his prostate cancer is one option many men don’t realize they may have. According to the Prostate Cancer Foundation, “current estimates indicate that many more men are aggressively treated for prostate cancer than is necessary to save a life from the disease.”

Technically called active surveillance, it means closely watching for any sign that the cancer may be growing or changing.  During active surveillance, a patient makes frequent doctor visits (typically every 3 to 6 months, at first) along with a  digital rectal exams and  a blood test called PSA (prostate specific antigen). After about a year,  another prostate biopsy is done to check the cancer. If these tests show that the cancer is growing or changing in any way, radiation therapy or surgery is offered to treat the cancer.

Whether active surveillance is a reasonable option for a particular patient is dependent on several factors:

  1. Their age, symptoms, and general health
  2. The stage of the tumor- based on the size and location of a tumor and whether it has spread or not
  3. The Gleason score (grade) of the tumor- based on a scale of 2 to 10. This score tells how different the prostate cancer tissue (taken by a biopsy) looks from normal prostate tissue and how likely it is that the cancer will grow or spread. Most men with early-stage prostate cancer have a Gleason score of 6 or 7.

Based on these factors, a physician can determine the degree of risk for a particular cancer:

  • Low-risk prostate cancer is not likely to grow or spread for many years.
  • Medium-risk prostate cancer is not likely to grow or spread for a few years.
  • High-risk prostate cancer may grow or spread within a few years.
  • PSA levels (or changes in levels)

The ideal candidates for active surveillance have a low grade (Gleason 6 or less), low-risk prostate cancer that is small in size, especially if they have concerns about treatment affecting their potency or causing urinary symptoms. It may also be a good choice for older men with limited life expectancy, or for those dealing with other serious health conditions.

As always, this decision should be made between a patient and his physician after all the options are discussed. A second opinion is also valuable.  Consulting with the three types of physicians who treat prostate cancer- a urologist, a radiation oncologist, and a medical oncologist— can give the most comprehensive assessment of the available treatments and expected outcomes.

I’m pleased that McKellen has been so open about his cancer. As e-patients know- knowledge is power!

And besides- we need Gandalf around for many more Hobbit adventures!





1 Comment

  1. Anne Wells

    December 12, 2012 at 3:48 pm

    Upon reading this article, the tiny nerd that lives inside of my brain screamed out “No! Not Gandalf the Grey! Anyone but him!” in response to learning that he has lived with prostate cancer for several years now. It is hard to identify that the person behind a beloved fictional character, such as Sir Ian McKellen, actually has some degree of mortality. However, I do find value behind his honesty in a real humbling moment, especially since it has given rise to awareness of an alternative treatment plan to prostate cancer. Since prostate cancer is somewhat of a common form of cancer, it seems beneficial to have a now tag a prominent face to the disease in a way that normalizes it and reduces some of the anxiety behind a patient with prostate cancer feeling that he may be the only one suffering in the world, even if it is the face of a celebrity.

    On another note, I find that the manner at which the information about the “active surveillance” treatment plan against prostate cancer is highly effective in this manner. True, this is method is little known and may in fact not be an option for many men depending on the status of their cancer, but the potential to fight cancer without the traditional stigma of surgery and rounds of chemo are really encouraging and shows medical progress. Knowing if it were, however, could make a huge difference. Eric Topol, author of “The Creative Destruction of Medicine”, comments on the way that “each of us has a right to information about our own body, access to knowledge and conditions that affect our health” (from Dr. Michael Harrison, UC San Francisco). In the same way, a patient with prostate cancer ought to receive all the information about the disease that they can, and if it is best done through celebrity example, then more power to it and we should do what we can to expand this interface to as many people as possible.

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