Michael Douglas spoke with David Letterman regarding the recently announced news that he has throat cancer, on The Letterman Show Tuesday.
Douglas appeared thinner than usual as he had recently completed week one of chemotherapy that is scheduled to continue for eight weeks. He expects the coming weeks to be challenging and said it could become difficult to eat solid food and his voice may change.
Michael Douglas affirms that he is up against an “eight-week struggle” against throat cancer, yet is upbeat regarding his odds for recovery.
Douglas remains optimistic. Even though his throat cancer is at Stage 4, it has not spread. He said that he has an 80% chance of recovery while some opinions are even more favorable.
In the course of an cameo on David Letterman’s “Late Show,” Tuesday the actor mentioned taht he just completed his very first week of radiation and chemotherapy treatments. That caused an astonished expression from Letterman.
“You’ve never looked better to me, and this proves that you’re a tough guy, for God’s sakes,” said Dave, the studio audience responding with cheers.
“Let’s just say … I’m pretty lit up right now,” Douglas responded.
The condition had been identified three weeks ago, he stated, even though he had complained of a very sore throat previously this year and had gone through tests which were unsuccessful at discovering the cause.
Douglas who is now 65 years old, said that before returning to the doctor, he had spent a nice summer traveling with his family. A biopsy identified thta he has late, stage-four cancer, “which is intense, and so they’ve had to go at it,” he said.
Nonetheless, Douglas explained, the cancer is still only above the neck which means the outlook is good.
Douglas admitted to being a smoker and a drinker when asked about his personal habits by the talk show host.
Using tobacco or drinking alcohol are among the factors that put people at risk for throat cancer according to the National Institutes of Health website, and when you put the two together, it only increases the risk.
The NIH site states that men are more likely than women to get the disease and that most throat cancer develops in people 50 or older.
