14 DAY TRIAL // Actor Michael Douglas has been diagnosed with stage 4 throat cancer and he’s already undergoing treatment for it. The latest issue of People magazine is dedicated to the actor and his determination to beat the disease.
The news that he had cancer came as a shock for Douglas himself, as he also said the other day on David Letterman, his first televised appearance since making the cancer announcement.
“Douglas reveals in this week’s People cover story that he received the diagnosis of throat cancer in early August after suffering persistent throat and ear pain,” People writes.
He wishes doctors had spotted the disease earlier on but that does nothing in terms of weakening his determination to beat it and see this through.
“‘It’s a fight,’ says the 65-year-old Oscar winner, who is undergoing a grueling course of radiation and chemotherapy to treat a tumor at the base of his tongue, and adds of his treatment: ‘It really knocks you out’,” the publication further writes.
Confirmation of cancer came to top what had already been a rather tough year for the veteran actor who, earlier on, had to witness his son Cameron being sentence to five years in jail on drug trafficking charges.
However, wife Catherine Zeta-Jones is convinced none of this can bring Michael down, because if there’s one thing he has plenty of, that’s strength.
This is not to say, though, that the first week of chemotherapy was easy to deal with, the actress explains, adding it’s very hard to see signs of exhaustion in her seemingly tireless husband.
“The hardest part is seeing his fatigue, because Michael is never tired,” Zeta-Jones says for the same issue of the publication.
Apparently, Michael broke the sad news to the children Dylan, 10, and Carys, 7) himself. “Daddy sat them down and told them he has cancer now,” Catherine explains.
Michael Douglas also revealed on Letterman that he had just completed the first week of therapy but revealed that doctors were optimistic in their expectations.
Moreover, he said he had an 80 percent chance of beating cancer because it hadn’t yet spread below the neck, which meant things were far from hopeless, as we also reported yesterday.