Basic Instinct actor fighting against Throat Cancer !

Michael Kirk Douglas (born September 25, 1944) is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. He has won three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards, first as producer of 1975's Best Picture, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and as Best Actor in 1987 for his role in Wall Street. Douglas received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2009.


Michael Douglas told a US television audience on recently that he has been diagnosed with and is receiving treatment for stage four throat cancer.
Speaking on David Letterman's "Late Show" to promote the release of his new film "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps", the 65- year old American actor and producer said his doctors had told him he has an 80 per cent chance of survival.

Stage four means the cancer has spread from the primary site, for example to another organ.

His press spokesman Allen Burry said that Douglas is being treated at Manhattan's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center:

"The tumor is at the base of his tongue and his doctor's prognosis is for a full recovery," he told ABCNews.com.

In the TV interview Douglas said he was diagnosed earlier in the summer: he had been experiencing a sore throat that would not go away and he consulted several doctors.

When asked about the severity of the tumor, Douglas said "I am above the neck, so nothing's gone down", and that "the expectations are good".
He told Letterman he was a drinker and a smoker and that "this particular type of cancer is caused by alcohol and drinking", reported the New York Times.

The actor said he has now completed the first week of an eight-week chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment, which he described as "very intense".

Apart from revealing the tumor is at stage four, Douglas did not, however, say what type of throat cancer he has, leaving others to speculate on what it might be.

Throat cancer, also called pharyngeal cancer, is a broad term that refers to a range of cancers that form in the tissues of the pharynx, the tube that starts behind the nose and finishes at the top of the windpipe (trachea) and foodpipe (esophagus). Air travel through the pharynx to the trachea .Food travels through pharynx and enters the esophagus.