The radiation and chemotherapy that Michael Douglas is getting for Stage IV throat cancer is tough and painful, and may affect the actors ability to swallow.
Douglas, 65, talked several days ago about his cancer during an appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman. At the time, he had just finished the first week of the combined radiation and chemotherapy treatment. Letterman told Douglas that he looked good, but the actor said he expected to get weaker as the eight-week course of treatment continued. And he said hed already been knocked down hard by the first week alone.
Robert Haddad, an oncologist with the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, told USA Today that patients often develop painful mouth sores that require morphine-level pain relievers. In addition, said Haddad, who specializes in head and neck cancer, radiation often makes it difficult to swallow. Because of that, many patients use a feeding tube.
But Haddad, who has not treated Douglas, said that the actors quality of life, in the long term, should be excellent. He said that the treatment can cure up to 80 percent of patients. Douglas made a similar statement when talking to Letterman, saying, The percentages are very goodright now, it looks like it should be 80 percent.
