Michael Douglas says tumour gone, cancer may be beat

LOS ANGELES, Jan 11 — Oscar-winning actor Michael Douglas,

who revealed in August that he had throat cancer, said
yesterday that his tumour is gone and chances are good he has
beaten cancer. In an interview with US morning news and talk
show “Today,” Douglas told co-host Matt Lauer: “I feel good,
relieved.”

“The tumour is gone. But, you know, I have to check out on a monthly basis now to maintain. I guess there’s not a total euphoria. I’ll probably take a couple of months of getting checked out. But it’s been a wild six-month ride,” Douglas said in a transcript of the interview released by the NBC network.

A portion of the segment will air today, and the full interview will air on “Dateline NBC” on January 23.

Lauer asked Douglas about putting on weight after radiation treatments, and Douglas said he had been “eating like a pig.” He is working out in a gym and even planning for an upcoming film role as famed pianist Liberace, he said.

“I think the odds are, with the tumour gone and what I know about this particular type of cancer, that I’ve got it beat,” Douglas told Lauer.

Douglas, 66, made a surprise announcement in August that doctors had diagnosed him with stage IV throat cancer but he was optimistic he would recover. Given the late stage of the tumour, however, many fans were concerned.

In the months since, Douglas has only sporadically appeared in the media and has been seen most often in paparazzi pictures walking the streets of New York with family members.

On “Today,” Douglas told Lauer he had lost 32 pounds during treatment, but had recently added back 12 pounds. He said he had lost a lot of muscle mass and that radiation treatment caused his salivary ducts to stop functioning for a time.

Read more here.