How Cancer Screening and Early Detection Saved One Man’s Life

(One in a series of stories on local cancer survivors who will be participating in the 2012 Relay for Life of Aliso Viejo.)

Millions of people are diagnosed with cancer each year. The two most important factors are having it diagnosed early enough and having it treated properly. But when to have a blood test done for a possible life-threatening disease has been an ongoing controversial subject for both men and women.

For women, it used to be recommended that they begin undergoing mammograms that would detect breast cancer when they reached age 40. Then it was age 50. Then it was every other year instead of once a year.

For men, a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test is recommended for those reaching age 50. However, a government task force recently suggested that doctors not routinely order prostate cancer screening tests. The report states that healthy men are more likely to be harmed by the blood draw, and that it can lead to unnecessary needle biopsies for men who actually don’t have cancer.

Just don’t tell that to Tracy Ettinghoff.

Sixteen years ago Ettinghoff was undergoing his annual physical when his primary care physician ordered a PSA test for him, along with the regular blood tests. Several days later the doctor called back to tell Ettinghoff that his PSA was abnormally high, and he recommended making an appointment with an urologist, who then performed a biopsy of Ettinghoff’s prostate.

It came back positive for prostate cancer.

He was 42.

“Cancer was not even in my mind. I was in perfect health. Nobody had cancer in my family that I knew of,” said Ettinghoff, a Laguna Niguel resident since 1983 and a real estate trial lawyer for ‘The Law Office of Tracy Ettinghoff’ since 1993. “My doctor said I was his youngest patient that he had ever diagnosed with prostate cancer.

“I know there is all sorts of controversial opinions this, but in my opinion the PSA is a stupid little blood test they do when they do all sorts of other tests, so why wouldn’t you do it? It doesn’t make sense. It costs about $10. I think people need to be educated on these types of tests to make sure they do the proper thing every year so they can treat it if it occurs. Same thing for women and mammograms.”

The Relay for Life of Aliso Viejo will begin at 10 a.m. at Grand Park, Town Center. The 24-hour relay event consists of teams of people camped around a track while members of each team take turns walking around the track. For more information and to register for the event, click here.

The doctor recommended that Ettinghoff have his prostate removed, and after a second and third opinion, he had it done.

The doctor recommended that Ettinghoff have his prostate removed, and after a second and third opinion, he had it done. After a three-night stay in the hospital and a couple of months recovering from the operation, Ettinghoff said he began feeling good as new—and forever thankful that his doctor had the foresight to order the prostate screening test.

I remember specifically when I got out of the hospital and went home, I walked around and looked at the flowers and I thought, ‘Everything is so beautiful. I am glad to be alive.’” Ettinghoff said. “I looked at the world in a different way than I had before I think if you talk to any cancer survivor they will tell you the same thing: once you have cancer it changes your life for the better. You have a better appreciation for life after you are diagnosed with a disease that can kill you.”

Eight years ago, his son, Evan, who was attending Aliso Niguel High School, told him about a fund-raising event for cancer survivors. Ettinghoff had never heard about the event, never thought about volunteering before, but the thought of what he had been through and the idea of helping other cancer survivors intrigued him.

The event was the Relay for Life of Aliso Viejo.

“Normally when you meet people you don’t say, ‘I’m a cancer survivor.’ It’s not the type of thing you say in a regular conversation,” Ettinghoff said. “But when you participate in these events you meet a lot of cancer survivors and realize there are a lot of us out there leading normal lives. If these charity events didn’t happen they wouldn’t be able to raise enough money to find a cure for a disease like this.”

Ettinghoff has held various positions with the Relay for Life of Aliso Viejo, including chairman, for the past nine years. This year he is the entertainment volunteer. Not only that but Ettinghoff also has been a volunteer with the Relay for Life of Laguna Niguel, which was held in early June, for the past five years.

The Relay for Life is the largest fund-raising event for the American Cancer Society, raising an estimated $50 million a year just in California. Ettinghoff, who has been married to his wife Marsha for 25 years, said that whatever he can do to help other cancer survivors like himself has been worth the personal sacrifice over the years.

“I’m doing something myself to help other people who might be diagnosed with this disease one day,” Ettinghoff said. “It’s important to do something and raise money for research. My volunteering is my contribution to help find a cure for it. I will always be involved some way to help the cause.”