Michael Douglas optimistic about cancer battle

Michael Douglas feels optimistic about recovering from throat cancer. The actor told TV talk-show host David Letterman that a biopsy indicated that his cancer was at stage IV, which he described as “intense, and so they’ve got to go at it …”

Letterman then asked whether stage IV was a good diagnosis. “Um no,” Douglas replied.

Stage IV cancer has spread far beyond the original tumor and is usually impossible to cure.

“No, you like to be down at stage I … but it has not — the big thing you’re always worried about is it spreading … and the expectations are good … “The percentages are very good,” Douglas added.

“I would hate to say, but right now, it looks like it should be 80 percent, and with certain hospitals and everything, it does improve.”

According to the National Cancer Institute, patients with stage IV head and neck cancer usually undergo surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.

Douglas — who is married to actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, with whom he has two children, Dylan, 10, and Carys, 7 — told Letterman that his cancer was caused by his drinking and smoking.