Keenan goes public with prostate cancer fight

Mike Keenan's fearlessness comes through as clear as the stern directions he used to give his players.

"So far, so good," the 68-year-old former NHL coach said at the start of a phone interview Wednesday.
Keenan has prostate cancer. The coach who led the New York Rangers to the 1994 Stanley Cup championship and won 672 NHL games, ninth all-time, was diagnosed in May and on Sept. 18 had a procedure called prostate brachytherapy, an implantation of seeds into the prostate that slowly dissolve, releasing radiation to kill the cancer cells.
He said he could have opted for a prostatectomy, the surgical removal of the prostate, or regular rounds of daily radiation treatments, but doctors at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, where he was treated, told him his cancer made him a candidate for the brachytherapy, a one-day treatment that uses needles to implant the seeds.
He's scheduled to have a checkup early next month to determine if any of the seeds dislodged from the prostate and if the cancer has spread.
"It's a positive prognosis because they caught it early and it wasn't extreme cancer," Keenan said. "It was moderate, and you can have less moderate or more extreme. For example, the procedure I did have, not everyone qualifies for it. If you're more advanced or you have a more extreme diagnosis than I had, most likely you have to have surgery to remove your prostate."

Keenan wasn't immediately sure if he wanted to go public with his disease, but he said the doctors at Sunnybrook urged him to tell his story in order to spread awareness. He started to do so in an article posted on TSN.ca on Tuesday.
"They encouraged me to go public, to use whatever platforms I could to help build awareness because they said men just don't talk about issues like this as women do," Keenan said. "I thought about it and I said, 'If I can turn a negative into a positive, I'd be happy to tell my story.' That's why I made the decision to go public, to just try to build awareness and be an advocate of an annual checkup, which is a simple blood test to monitor your prostate or any other health issues you might have."
Keenan's cancer was found through blood tests he has been getting annually since he was 45 years old. He said his prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level had always been normal, but this year it spiked.
"So the doctor said we should get you tested, and that includes biopsies to see what's going on," Keenan said. "It doesn't necessarily mean that you do have cancer, but it's a warning. So I did have the biopsies done and they discovered cancer in my prostate.
"Shock is a strong word, so I would say I was more surprised because my levels had been great."
Keenan visited doctors in the United States and Canada to seek opinions and learn of his options. He eventually chose brachytherapy.
"It's a sneaky disease because I have all kinds of energy and had all kinds of energy before," Keenan said. "I had no idea. That's why I was surprised. I've got a pretty high level of drive in me, and I didn't have any symptoms whatsoever before. Even the day after, or the day of [the procedure], I said, 'Are you sure you operated on me because I don't feel anything, I have no pain.' "

He has been hearing from men within the hockey community with similar experiences since going public. NBC's Pierre McGuire was one of the first to reach out. McGuire had prostate cancer last year, but his was treated with a complete prostatectomy.
McGuire and Keenan spoke Wednesday after exchanging emails for the previous 24 hours.
"I told him it was really important to walk a lot, eat right and to stay away from carbonated drinks, things like that," McGuire said. "Then we just started talking about hockey."
McGuire said he remembers hearing from his broadcast partner, Mike "Doc" Emrick, Rangers president Glen Sather and many more after he went public with his cancer.
"They explained to me what they had gone through, their trials and tribulations in terms of overcoming it, so now I feel I can pass that on to other men that have to go through this," McGuire said. "You've got to pay it forward. Being optimistic and being ready for the fight is really important."
Keenan is ready. He's fighting. He feels he's winning too.
"So far," he repeated, "so good."