Tom Green's cancer raises awareness

Ottawa comedian Tom Green has revealed he is suffering from testicular cancer. Green is in a Los Angeles hospital where he's to undergo more surgery.

Testicular cancer is in many ways a young man's illness and Green's case is helping to send out that message.

With his off-the-wall and often gross sense of humour Tom Green has earned his reputation as a shock comic.

But likely the greatest shock of his life came earlier this month when he discovered a swelling of one of his testicles was cancer, and had to have it removed.

Dr. Bill Evans of the Regional Cancer Centre say, "It's particularly important for men of that age to realize they can be affected by testicular cancer."

While testicular cancer hits only one percent of the overall male population, it's the leading cause of cancer for men of Green's age, men between 20 and 45.

The good news is it has a five year survival rate of 90%. Evans says that in terms of cancer, that's about as good as it gets.

However it is still important to detect it as early as possible.

Evans says, "Most lumps in women's breasts are found from showering. It makes sense that once a month men would examine themselves in the course of a shower and just get used to what the testicle feels like, its consistency and shape and note whether there's any change in its shape and size or any hard areas in it over time."

Green is undergoing more surgery to see if there are any traces of the cancer are still left.

Despite everything that's happened, he's maintained his sense of humour. He's using his web site to raise money for cancer research. And true to form he's named his fund the "Tom Green's Nuts Cancer Fund."