When is cancer news 'a bombshell'?

It was just the other day that I was writing in this space about Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf -- expressing my somewhat unpopular opinion that Wolf has been doing a good job in the way that he's running the executive branch and standing up for progressive government in the face of a recalcitrant legislature in Harrisburg.

Today, Wolf shared some news: That he's undergoing treatment for prostate cancer that was detected early, which means the prognosis for a full recovery is excellent. He handled the announcement with class and humor and, most importantly, used it as a teachable moment to encourage men of a certain age to get checked out for the second most common form of cancer. Although he didn't disclose details of his treatment, it's not expected to interfere with his duties in any significant way. It may be the only thing that people in Pennsylvania politics can agree on these days: We all wish him a speedy recovery.

I hadn't planned to write about this -- but I first heard the news reported in my car on KYW, I was a little surprised that the station called the announcement, not once but a couple of times, "a bombshell."

Here's the thing. Cancer is the worst; it remains the second leading cause of death in the United States. And most of us experience cancer not as a statistic but through the people we care about -- like my longtime boss at the Daily News, who's currently fighting against brain cancer -- who've been diagnosed with this still baffling array of diseases. There's a really good reason why you might see someone out and about wearing a hat or a T-shirt that says, "(Bleep) cancer."

But while it's frustrating that science can't cure cancer overnight, the increase in humankind's ability to treat some cancers and beat some of them into remission -- extending people's lives for years, or decades -- has been truly remarkable in recent decades. In the case of Gov. Wolf's announcement today, one shouldn't minimize prostate cancer -- it remains a leading cause of cancer for U.S. men, but that's largely because it is so common. Today, the success rate in treating prostate cancer is quite high.

As noted in the Inquirer's story on Wolf:

Approximately 14 percent of men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point during their lifetime, according to the National Cancer Institute. After a prostate cancer diagnosis, 98.9 percent survive at least five years.

That's why I was somewhat miffed at the KYW report. Is it really a "bombshell" that Gov. Wolf has such a highly treatable condition, one that happens to fall under the broad rubic of cancer? I'm singling out KYW here, but we've all heard news reports or just chatter where any news that touches on cancer is spun in such tragic sounding terminology, when the treatment and prognosis for many cancer patients today is better than ever. And so there's a risk of creating an unnecessary stigma.

We're talking here about a cancer that affects men -- and I know the "guy mentality." If we think there's a possible problem. and we don't want a doctor giving us devastating "bombshell" news, we put it off. For a month or two. Or a year or two. Or until it's too late. That is tragic -- because one of the best ways to beat cancer is simply by having good information.

So I'm happy for Gov. Wolf, because he caught it early, and anyone would take those 98.9 percent odds. I mean, compare that to his odds of passing a budget, right?