Photo of George From
Cover of PEOPLE -
March 24, 1986

From an Associated Press report:

George Harrison has undergone lung cancer surgery in the United States, according to his lawyers.  George, who is 58, had surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, to remove a cancerous growth from one of his lungs. The lawyers did not specify when the surgery occurred. They said the operation went according to plan and that George was relaxing in Tuscany, Italy.

"The operation was successful and George has made an excellent recovery. He is in the best of spirits and on top form - the most relaxed and free since the attack on him in 1999," the lawyers' statement said. The statement said George had a growth removed from his lung and the lawyers later told the British news agency Press Association that it had been cancerous.

George was treated for throat cancer in the late 1990s after he found a lump on his neck in 1997. He had surgery then, followed by
two courses of radiation therapy at the Royal Marsden Hospital, Britain's leading cancer treatment center.

BLAMES SMOKING
"I got it purely from smoking," George later said. "I gave up cigarettes many years ago, but had started again for a while and then stopped in 1997."  

Said George when he had the first round of cancer problems: "I had a little throat cancer. I had a piece of my lung removed in 1997. And then I was almost murdered. But I seem to feel stronger. I don't smoke anymore. I'm a little more short of breath than I used to be, so I don't see myself on stage lasting a full 14 rounds."

"Luckily for me they found that this nodule was more of a warning than anything else. There are many different types of cancerous cells and this was a very basic type," he said at the time. 

IK! Editor's Note:
In July, I'll be walking with our radio station in the Sault Ste. Marie Relay for Life, sponsored by the American Cancer Society.  We will have a luminaria lit for George on the track that day.