Michael Douglas blames his cancer on stress

The `Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps` star - who is currently undergoing eight weeks of radiation and chemotherapy after being diagnosed with a tumour in his throat last month - believes the emotional distress he has suffered in the last several months has been the cause of his illness but he is determined to beat it.

Michael - who has overcome alcoholism and drug addiction in the past -said: "This type of cancer can be brought on by alcohol and tobacco abuse and by a certain type of sexually transmitted reason, but I look at it as stress. I`ve had a pretty stressful year on a number of fronts, some of which were public and some of which weren`t.

"I`ve always worked hard and played hard and I`m sure I`ll be cleaning up my act in the future. But I`m still looking forward to a good glass of wine when I get my taste buds back. My plans are to lick this cancer but it will probably take four or five months. I`ve always prided myself on putting as much as I possibly can into everything I do and I`m going to beat this."

Michael`s 31-year-old son Cameron was handed a five-year jail sentence in April after pleading guilty to dealing methamphetamine and cocaine, a verdict which devastated the ?Basic Instinct? star.

The Oscar-winning actor also revealed he wanted to try and keep his condition secret but once he started having treatment he realised it wouldn`t be possible.

The 65-year-old star - who has two children Dylan, 10 and Carys, seven, with his wife Catherine Zeta-Jones - added to the Daily Mirror newspaper: "I wondered if I could keep it to myself, but when I knew what my programme would be - eight weeks of intense radiation combined with chemotherapy overlapping with the premiere - I realised I couldn`t.

"Chemotherapy takes its toll, the more you keep doing it you lose your energy and it gets more difficult to swallow. I`m having a crash course education in just how nasty these cancer cells can be."

sections: Celebrities