NEW YORK, NY.- Rick Steves, a travel writer who has built an empire of guidebooks, radio shows and television programs that focus on Europe, said on Wednesday that he had recently been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Steves, 69, has written dozens of guidebooks over four decades and hosted programs such as “Rick Steves’ Europe,” a series that began in 2000 and has now aired for 12 seasons on public television in the United States. He also hosts a radio show and podcast called “Travel with Rick Steves.” He announced the diagnosis in a social media post Wednesday.

In an interview from his home in Seattle on Wednesday, Steves said that his years of travel had taught him to seek experiences that broaden his perspectives, including culture shock, and his cancer diagnosis was not very different.

“You learn a lot more about your home sometimes by leaving it and looking at it from a distance,” he said by phone.

“When you’re having a trip, it’s leaving your comfort zone, it’s leaving your home — and for me, a hospital is a very foreign place,” he added. “The experience is, I’m meeting wonderful people, I’m gaining an appreciation of things I wouldn’t have gained otherwise, and I’m being reminded of what’s important in life.”

Steves said that he had received the diagnosis a few weeks ago after his new doctor suggested he take a blood test. Even though he was not having any symptoms, he agreed, making a decision that he said his doctor would later say saved his life.

“It’s much better to check things in advance than to find out about them when it’s too late,” he said.

Scans showed the cancer had not spread, so he had a clear path to recovery. But he said it had led to an uncomfortable yet novel experience, forcing him to confront the fragility of health. Prostate cancer is a fairly common cancer in men and is the second leading cause of cancer death among American men. But the disease usually progresses slowly.

“Statistically, all the odds are in my favor,” he said. “But I’m going into it with eyes open — I mean, I’ve got cancer. That’s a serious thing.”

After the diagnosis, he said, he gained a new appreciation for modern medicine and medical technologies. He also said he encountered the strains on the health care system and the unequal ways cancer can upend lives among those who cannot pay for treatment.

“It should not be just something that privileged people can do,” he said.

Until his surgery late September in Seattle, Steves plans to be in France for a few weeks to film a one-hour special about sights in Paris and a half-hour show about the cuisine and barges of Burgundy. He is also scheduled to appear with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra in Cincinnati.

“And then I’m going to go get the surgery,” he said, “and I’ll be shuffling around in my home in my pajamas for a couple of weeks.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.