On an information crusade

Carlos Zapata said his family and his faith helped him through his surgery for prostate cancer and his recovery

DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
Taffet@DallasVoice.com

Carlos Zapata, morning news anchor on Telemundo Channel 39, is back at work NOW after a five-week absence for prostate cancer surgery. Few people knew what Zapata was facing until he posted a video with his husband Travis Gasper just a few days before entering Baylor Hospital.

Prostate cancer is the second-most-deadly cancer in American men; about one in 44 men will die from it. But thanks to early detection and advances in treatment, most men diagnosed with prostate won’t die from the disease.

Since September is prostate cancer awareness month, Zapata thought it was a perfect time to tell his story.

“I’m doing well,” Zapata said. “The worst part of the treatment is over. I have two years left doing testosterone suppressors.”

(High testosterone levels encourage prostate cancer to spread.)

Zapata, who is 47, said he was showing no symptoms. But his husband checked his lab results after a routine exam earlier this year, telling him, “This doesn’t look normal,” referring to his PSA level. Zapata’s PSA level was 41.5; a normal PSA — prostate-specific antigen — level is under 1.

Checking his earlier records, Zapata noticed that his PSA level in 2024 was 11.4; in 2023 it was just 2.7.

“I was taking finasteride for hair loss,” Zapata said, and that drug can elevate PSA levels.

Still, 41.5 is extremely high. So he called his doctor.

They told him, “We’ve been trying to reach you. You need to have an MRI.”

So he met with a urologist and had the MRI, which led to a biopsy that takes a dozen samples from all sides of the prostate.

“On May 13, I got a phone call [saying] ‘Nine samples from your 12 came back positive. You have high risk, very aggressive prostate cancer.’”

Zapata said you hear about other people contracting cancer all the time. But when it happens to you, everything stops. His first thought, he said, was “I exercise. I eat healthy, sleep well … Why me?”

In addition to the prostate cancer, the MRI revealed a spot on Zapata’s right femur. So doctors had to do a PET scan to make sure the cancer hadn’t metastasized. That test came back negative.

The next task was to choose a course of treatment.

For some prostate cancers, radiation and chemotherapy work well. Zapata said his doctor told him that such cases are common in 70-year-old men and that undergoing radiation treatment makes future surgery more difficult.

Again he asked the doctor, “Why me?”

The doctor said Zapata probably has a genetic predisposition to prostate cancer. In fact, his mother was a two-time breast cancer survivor — another cancer whose growth may be hormone related.

“So that’s why I underwent surgery,” he said.

On July 21, Zapata had surgery to remove his prostate. His Gleason score — a scale from 1-to-10 indicating how aggressive the prostate cancer is — was 9 after surgery.

His recovery was quick. Within a few hours of returning to his hospital room, he was up and walking and he only spent one night in the hospital.

But doctors told him that his story would have been completely different had he waited another year.

Zapata was as prepared as possible for the next steps, beginning physical therapy preparing himself for erectile dysfunction and incontinence, which both happen as a result of prostate removal.

He explained that the prostate sits between the bladder and urethra. With the prostate, removed, it is more difficult to keep urine from dripping out the urethra.

To correct this, Zapata said, he learned to do Kegel exercises to strengthen his pelvic floor muscles. He said he has Ricky Martin to thank for proving that the exercises have worked.

This past weekend, Zapata and Gasper went to Las Vegas and had tickets to see Martin. He said he normally drinks plenty of water and had his normal amount the day of the concert. He was able to make it standing and screaming through a two-hour concert without going to the bathroom or leaking at all. So he counts that as a big milestone and success.

What got him through surgery and recovery? He said his faith and his family, his fitness and his age. Since the surgery, his mom and mother-in-law, along with his husband, took great care of him through his recovery, Zapata said. And the Rev. Neil Thomas has asked him to speak with another church member who was diagnosed with prostate cancer — something Zapata was happy to do. And he is still going to physical therapy two or three time a week.

Mostly, Zapata said, his cancer surgery was just a big interruption in his life: “Last week I was covering Caribbean flooding and this week I am having cancer surgery,” he said.

For the past year, he and his husband have been busy trying to expand their family. Through an agency, they created embryos and have been looking for a surrogate to carry a child to term for them.

“I’m a survivor since the day I was diagnosed because I’ve been doing everything I can to stay alive,” he said. “If I can help someone, let’s do it.”

Although Zapata was asymptomatic, the warning signs — when there are warning signs — are peeing a lot at night or having trouble peeing at night and having a burning sensation.

After surgery, there are several things he recommends.

“Meditation helped me a lot,” he said. “I meditate 15 minutes a day. And talk to a therapist.”
Don’t go through this alone. He said he appreciated friends checking in with him, but his husband was his main support, so he appreciated friends checking in on Gasper even more so.

Although he’s back at work, Zapata said he is not 100 percent, yet, and is taking things “one step at a time.” He said the day he went back to work, earlier this month, was very emotional for him.

“My desk was decorated with blue balloons. I entered the editorial meeting, and everyone was clapping” and telling him that he inspired them.

“I know someone at another station who asked me about symptoms,” he said. “He was hesitant to go get checked. Go and face it.

“Another church member was recently diagnosed. We met for coffee and talked for 45 minutes about his journey,” and at the end of their chat, the man told Zapata, “I feel so much better now that I talked to you.”

Zapata said he kept his sense of humor through the ordeal. “When my doctor told me my hormone levels were high, I said, ‘Of course. I’m a Colombian stallion.’”

This week, he was recording a podcast at the station where he works. “There wasn’t much information [about prostate cancer] in Spanish,” he explained. “So I’m on a crusade to share information.”

………….

The facts on prostate cancer
The following information about prostate cancer is from the American Cancer Society:

Frequency

• In 2025, an estimated 313,780 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed and 35,770 men will die from prostate cancer.
• From 2007 to 2014 fewer men were screened for prostate cancer resulting in fewer diagnoses. Since 2014, the incidence rate has increased by 3 percent per year.
• One in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point in their lives.

Risk

• The risk of prostate cancer can vary based on age, race and ethnicity among other factors.
• About six in 10 prostate cancers are diagnosed in men over the age of 65. Prostate cancer is rare in men under 40. The average age of first diagnosis is 67.
• African American men tend to develop prostate cancer at a much lower PSA level than other men and tend to be younger.
• Prostate cancer seems to run in some families, so there may be a genetic component.
• Men with variants of the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene — which are linked to increased risk of breast and ovarian cancers in women — have an increased risk of prostate cancer.
• Diet may play a role. Men who consume a lot of dairy products and calcium may be at a higher risk.
• Obesity does not seem to increase risk. Obese men have a lower risk of getting a slower-growing form of the disease.
• Smoking does not seem to increase risk.
• Some chemicals may increase risk such as exposure to arsenic. Firefighters may be exposed to certain chemical that may increase risk.

Death

• Prostate cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer death in American men (behind lung cancer).
• About one in 44 men will die from prostate cancer.
• Most men diagnosed with prostate cancer do not die from it.
• 3.5 million men in the U.S. who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer are alive today.
• The death rate declined by half from 1993 to 2022 likely due to early detection and advances in treatment.