Dr. Drew: I Am a Prostate Cancer Survivor

Famed TV doc discloses he went under the knife recently after being diagnosed with the disease

Dr. Drew has spent years listening to other peoples' health problems. But now he's talking about his own.

The HLN host and board-certified internist revealed that he underwent surgery over the Fourth of July holiday for prostate cancer and he is now free of the disease.

"While many of you were celebrating the Fourth of July, I was at home on my couch recovering from a radical robotic prostatectomy," Dr. Drew, full name Drew Pinsky, wrote in a lengthy post on the website for his HLN show, Dr. Drew On Call.

"Four hours of surgery had left me in great pain, without an appetite, and in need of help from my college-age son, Jordan, to get up and lie down. But I was cancer-free for the first time in at least two years."

That's certainly welcome news.

Pinsky confessed that he had first fell under the weather in 2011, but it wasn't until his wife, Susan, "begged" him to go to the doctor that he learned from an ultrasound that his prostate was inflamed, a condition known as prostatitis.

Thanks to the "judgment and intuition" of his doctor however, he subsequently underwent a biopsy which turned up a low-grade tumor—not exactly a rare occurrence since, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than half of all men by age 80 will develop cancer in their prostate.

For the 55-year-old Loveline cohost this wasn't entirely unexpected either considering his father and uncle both had prostate cancer.

After a 10-month surveillance period, more biopsies showed that the mass on his prostate had spread, convincing Pinsky's physician that the whole gland had to come out. And good thing too.

"When I came out of the anesthesia, it felt as if someone had been messing around with my insides. Not good," said Dr. Drew. "Neither was what they found inside; the tumor had a 'finger' on it that was millimeters from being contained. It was ready to spread, and would have, had it not been removed."

Pinsky went back to work 10 days later, has since started working out again, and is "feeling very good" after getting a clean bill of health.

"The only remnant of cancer surgery is six small scars on my torso," he added. "They are fading fast. I'm hopeful I am cured."

Dr. Drew concluded by sharing important facts about prostate cancer so other men can be on the lookout and seek treatment should they face a similar diagnosis.