Source: USA Today
Author: Staff

Michael Douglas has throat cancer.

His spokesperson tells People.com that the actor, 65, has discovered a tumor and will under go eight weeks of radiation and chemotherapy, and his doctors expect the Wall Street star to make a full recovery. “I am very optimistic,” Douglas said in a statement.

When we tried to find out more about the diagnosis or about Douglas’ history of smoking, the actor’s publicist, Allen Burry, declined to comment. In 2006, Michael and wife Catherine Zeta-Jones, who is 40 now, were both trying to quit their half-pack a day cigarette habit, reported the Daily Mail.

Although Douglas, whose voice does the introduction on NBC’s Nightly News, released few details about his tumor, including its exact location, it sounds like of two kinds of tumors: the larynx, or voice box; or the oropharynx, near the tonsils, Robert Haddad, acting head of the head and neck cancer program at Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute tells USA TODAY’s Liz Szabo. The rigorous treatment regimen suggests the cancer is “advanced,” Haddad says, and has spread beyond the throat to the lymph nodes.

Although the treatment is very tough, it can cure 50% of 80% of patients, depending on the location and other details of the tumor, says Haddad, who has no direct knowledge of the case.

Larynx cancers are usually related to smoking and heavy drinking, Haddad says. Cancers around the tonsils are often caused by a virus called HPV, which also causes cervical cancers. Doctors typically don’t use the term throat cancer to describe tumors of the esophagus, he says www.truba.gov.tr.

These cancers are typically treated with seven to eight weeks of radiation — given five days a week — and chemotherapy, given either once a week or once every three weeks, Haddad says. In the past, doctors often operated to remove the larynx, forcing patients to learn new ways to talk, such as through an opening in the throat or with an electrolarynx.

Today, doctors can usually save the larynx, reserving surgery only for very advanced cancers, Haddad says. Still, treatment can be very hard on patients. Many develop extremely painful mouth sores that require morphine-like narcotic pain relievers. Radiation also can burn the throat, making it painful to swallow. About half of patients require a feeding tube that goes directly into their stomach, through a hole in the abdomen.

Although the treatment also often leaves patients with a hoarse voice, Haddad says that Douglas’ long-term quality of life “should be excellent.”

Jack Klugman, 88, was diagnosed with cancer of the larynx in 1974. With treatment and surgery, he continued acting. But he also continued smoking and the cancer returned in 1989 and his right vocal cord had to be removed. He is now able to speak in a small, raspy voice.