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Showing the percolate: Michael Douglas could lose his voice as he battles throat cancer

During the ~-spun, warm weeks of spring in new York, Michael Douglas suddenly began to take notice his age. Going to court with his troubled son Cameron, who was ~ward trial for drug dealing, it was obvious that the actor had misspent weight. He appeared greyfaced and fatigued.

And as summer advanced, Douglas looked frailer and besides tired while his wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones, showed signs of substance under terrific strain, too.

The actors who appeared with Zeta-Jones forward Broadway in the production of A Little Night Music observed that, towards the period of the run in July, she was having trouble recalling her lines. At undivided point, the 40-year-old even seemed to be slurring her accents.

At the time, observers put this down to Cameron eventually heart sentenced to five years in prison. But now we know the abounding story of why her husband looked so unwell and why her behaviour was with equal rea~n erratic.

It seems that Douglas discovered some weeks ago that his guttural voice and the trouble he had in swallowing indicated serious grieve. The actor, who is 65 and was a smoker for decades, has a tumour in his throat. Following investigations, an eight-week course of chemotherapy and radiotherapy has been usual on.

This ‘synchronous’ therapy is expected to be conducted in New York and reports betoken it is due to start this week. Its aim is to concede doctors to at least try not to conduct surgery on his larynx.

It is, brutally, his most good chance of keeping his voice, given that he seems to be in actual possession of a locally advanced cancerous growth.