Washington
(ANI):
Hollywood
star
Michael
Douglas" tumour
may
have
gone
after
months
of
radiation
and
chemotherapy
for
late-stage
throat
cancer,
but
he"s
still
at
risk
for
recurrence.
Not
a
trace
of
the
stage-IV,
walnut-sized
tumor
at
the
base
of
his
tongue
could
be
detected
on
medical
imaging,
Douglas
told
NBC's
Today
Show
viewers
this
morning,
reports
ABC
News.
It's
a
signal
of
complete
response
to
treatment,
researchers
told
MedPage
Today
and
ABC
News.
Yet
they
warned
that
the
66-year-old
Douglas
is
hardly
out
of
the
woods.
"We
always
hope
that
our
treatments
cure
the
patient
but
the
reality
is
that
even
in
the
absence
of
detectable
disease,
he
is
at
risk
for
recurrence," Scott
Strome,
chair
of
head
and
neck
surgery
at
the
University
of
Maryland
in
Baltimore,
said
in
an
E-mail.
It
is
typical
for
this
type
of
cancer
even
at
stage-IV
to
be
in
complete
remission
at
this
point,
according
to
Gregory
T.
Wolf,
chair
emeritus
of
the
University
of
Michigan
Hospitals
in
Ann
Arbor.
Tongue-base
cancers
that
are
caused
by
human
papillomavirus
(HPV)
infection
"have
excellent
'cure' rates
[measured
by
five-year
survival]
in
the
range
of
70-80
percent,
regardless
of
tumor
stage,"
Wolf
said.
But
those
rates
are
diminished
for
patients
whose
cancer
is
likely
tied
to
smoking
and
drinking.
It
is
not
clear
whether
Douglas'
cancer
was
positive
for
HPV,
but
the
actor
has
admitted
to
smoking
and
drinking
rather
heavily.
If
solely
based
on
smoking
and
drinking,
his
risk
of
recurrence
is
about
50
percent,
Wolf
estimated.