Larry King's Secret Cancer Battle

Celebrity

Larry King's Secret Cancer Battle

Larry King conquered the broadcasting industry for more than 60 years. He started as a journalist and radio interviewer in Florida in the 1960s, and in 1978 King became prominent as an all-night radio broadcaster.

From 1985 to 2010, Larry King hosted the incredibly popular Larry King Live on CNN. King's show was one of the most well-respected interview television programs in history.

Now, King hosts a show on Hulu called Larry King Now and on Thursdays, he hosts Politicking with Larry King.

Despite his age, the 83-year-old has not slowed down one bit since booming onto the broadcasting scene all those years ago. This past summer, though, King was given some news that could have lead to losing it all.

In an interview with Us Weekly, the television host revealed he was diagnosed with lung cancer.

"I go for my checkup and they say, 'Let's do a chest X-ray, and the doctor said to me, 'Something looks funny,'" he recalls. "They said the spot looked pretty small. ... I then did a CAT scan then a PET scan and then he said to me, 'You have lung cancer, but it looks very small, in the beginning stages.'"

"The doctor said to me, 'It was malignant but you were in the first stage. If it had stayed and we didn't find it, you would have had trouble in two or three years, but we got it and you were lucky,'" he recalls.

On July 17, King underwent surgery to remove the tumor at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Two weeks after his surgery, King returned to work.

"They showed me my latest chest X-ray, which is all clear," he says. "It was fun to see where that spot was and there is no spot now. They took off 20 percent of the lung."

Despite Larry King never picking up a cigarette since his heart attack in the late '80s, doctors told him the residual effects still caused his health problems.

"The doctor said that tobacco from 30 years ago is still related to this lung cancer," he said in the interview. "When you are [getting] a checkup, get a chest X-ray because lung cancer ain't going to tell you it's there, but a simple chest X-ray will. If it shows you one little spot, you will do a CAT scan. They are all painless."

And if you think lung cancer is going to slow down King, think again.

"I will probably die on the air. I have beaten so many things health-wise to feel this good now. I have no plans to retire," he says. "I've never ever felt better than I do now. I've done everything I can do. I've done comedy, stand-up, I tell stories, I've written 15 books, I have done television [and] radio.I would like to do six months on Broadway. I'd like to do an evening with Larry King where I tell stories and take questions from the audience. ... That would be on my bucket list."

We're glad the doctors caught King's cancer early, and that he's got no plans of slowing down!

Meagan has an intense love for Netflix, napping, and carbs.