Rush Limbaugh Diagnosed With ‘Advanced Lung Cancer,’ Says He Will Miss Shows During Treatment

Conservative radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh told his listeners on Monday that he has “advanced lung cancer,” Fox News reports. He also told his audience that he would miss some shows in the coming months as he undergoes treatment.

During Monday’s program, Limbaugh revealed the news. With his characteristic sometimes-self-deprecating humor, joking that he doesn’t like talking about himself and making the show about him, he told the audience what he has apparently been dreading telling them for some time.

“This day has been one of the most difficult days in recent memory, for me, because I’ve known this moment was coming… The upshot is that I have been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer,” he said, noting that in his three decades in the broadcast booth, he’s developed a bond with his audience.

He also noted that he broke the news to his staff earlier in the day and that fears that he’s “letting everybody down.”

As for the future of his show, the 69-year-old promised to deliver his broadcast each day as normal, as often as he can. But he did note that he will miss certain shows on days that he receives treatment. For now, he’s expected to miss Tuesday and Wednesday, but he hopes to be back behind the microphone on Thursday.

“We’ve got a great bunch of doctors, a great team assembled, we’re at full speed ahead on this… It’s just now a matter of implementing what we are going to be told later this week,” he said.

https://youtu.be/VTtMYnWokzk

Limbaugh said that, for now, he’s not experiencing any symptoms. But he began to suspect something was amiss back on January 12.

Back in 2010, as CNN Money reported at the time, Limbaugh said that he had switched to electronic cigarettes in order to kick his tobacco habit. The host was known to enjoy fine cigars and appeared more than once in the pages of Cigar Aficionado magazine.

This marks the third time that a major health concern has bedeviled Limbaugh.

Back in 2000, Limbaugh admitted to his listeners that he was experiencing near-total deafness, but regained his hearing with the use of a cochlear implant. And in 2003, he admitted that he was addicted to prescription pain medication.

According to The American Lung Association, lung cancer has an 18.6 percent five-year survival rate. The prognosis is better when it’s caught early, but very few people diagnosed with the disease are given the diagnosis early in the cancer’s progression.