This Veteran Faced Prostate Cancer. Here’s What He Wishes Every Man Knew

Survivor Henry H. Washington III, PhD, wants you to understand how this disease can affect your life.

What Every Male Veteran Entrepreneur Needs to Know About Prostate Cancer

You survived deployments, built a business from the ground up, and learned to push through pain without complaint. But the stoic mindset that made you a great soldier and a driven entrepreneur could quietly cost you your life — and that’s not a dramatic exaggeration. For male veteran business owners, prostate cancer is a threat that demands the same strategic attention you give your balance sheet.

The Numbers Don’t Lie

Prostate cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer death in American men, behind only lung cancer — and in 2024 alone, nearly 300,000 men were diagnosed with it. About one in eight men will be diagnosed during their lifetime, and the disease typically shows no symptoms until it has reached an advanced stage. By then, options narrow dramatically. For men diagnosed after the cancer has spread to other parts of the body, the five-year relative survival rate drops to just 32%.

Veterans Face an Amplified Risk

Here’s where it gets especially critical for the veteran community: your service may have put you in the crosshairs of this disease before you ever fired up a business plan. A 2013 study conducted at the Portland VA Medical Center and Oregon Health and Science University found that veterans exposed to Agent Orange are not only at higher risk for prostate cancer, but are more likely to develop aggressive forms of the disease.

The numbers behind that finding are sobering. Exposed men faced a 52% overall higher risk of prostate cancer compared to non-exposed men — and their risk of high-grade, fast-growing prostate cancer was elevated by 75%. Agent Orange-exposed veterans were also, on average, five years younger at the time of biopsy. The 2022 PACT Act expanded protections further, adding prostate cancer to the list of presumptive conditions resulting from burn pit exposure during the Gulf War and post-9/11 era — meaning even more veterans carry elevated risk than previously recognized.

The Entrepreneur’s Blind Spot

Running a business creates a uniquely dangerous set of conditions for ignoring your health. Long hours, financial pressure, and a “push through it” mentality mean that routine screenings get skipped, annual physicals get rescheduled indefinitely, and symptoms get rationalized away. Research shows that more than half of men do not receive regular health screenings, and 77% of men didn’t know their complete family history regarding urological issues.

For a veteran entrepreneur, this isn’t just a health risk — it’s a business risk. A late-stage diagnosis can pull you out of your company for months, force leadership transitions you’re not prepared for, and put everything you’ve built at stake.

What Action Looks Like

The American Cancer Society recommends that men discuss prostate cancer screening with their doctor starting at age 50 for most men, age 45 for Black men, and age 40 for those at very high risk. If you’re a veteran with potential toxic exposure history, talk to your VA provider about starting earlier. The PSA blood test is simple — and if the cancer is detected on time, it can be treated effectively.

The majority of prostate cancers don’t cause symptoms until they’re advanced — that’s exactly why PSA screening matters: it can detect cancer long before anything feels wrong.

You ran toward the hard things in uniform. Don’t run away from a blood test. Schedule the screening, know your numbers, and protect not just your health — but everything you’ve worked so hard to build.

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