'Dancing' judge Len Goodman reveals prostate cancer surgery

Len Goodman is glad he survived to dance another day after having a cancerous tumor removed last month.


The Dancing with the Stars judge revealed that he is recovering from surgery he underwent to remove a cancerous tumor in his prostate gland, Britain's The Daily Mail reported Sunday.

"I've had the surgery now. Everything's gorgeously good," Goodman told The Mail.  "I'll be back in September for sure."

The 65-year-old said he first discovered he had cancer in March in the midst of Dancing with the Stars eighth season but did not receive treatment until after the show concluded its broadcast run in May.

"I could have said sorry and not done the show, but the doctors felt I wasn't riddled with it and it wasn't so far advanced that it was a life-or-death scenario," he told The Mail.


"It takes a few weeks to get everything set up for the operation anyway, so I went ahead and did the show. I had the surgery done as soon as I got back from America."

In addition, Goodman said he decided to keep the diagnosis and subsequent surgery under wraps -- telling no one except for family members and close friends.

"I didn't want to tell everyone... It's not necessary to blabber it out to everyone," he told The Mail.

While Goodman said he was "obviously worried" when he was first diagnosed, he eventually decided to focus on the possibility of recovery.

"We all worry if we get something like this. You do feel a bit vulnerable," he told The Mail.  "But as long as you come out the other side all right, why worry?"


Goodman added that he underwent surgery at a hospital in South-East London and said it was performed by one of Britain's leading urologists, Peter Thompson.

"I was confined to the hospital for four days, and then it's been a couple of weeks of convalescing and recuperating," Goodman told The Mail.

"The trouble with doctors is they won't tell you definitely what you should do.  They leave it to you. So yours is an uneducated guess. They said I could have radiation, but I thought the best thing was to have it removed."

Despite the fact that Goodman won't be able to play golf for a while -- which he told The Mail is "the biggest blow at the moment" -- he added that he feels he made the best decision in forgoing radiation in favor of surgery.

"It was left to me and I felt that was the best route, but whether it is or not I don't know," he told The Mail.


Goodman also stressed the importance for middle-aged men to receive regular check-ups concerning their prostate.

"As long as you get checked up every year, then medicine is such now that if you do get something, then hopefully they can catch it early and you have a good chance," he told The Mail.

"I think that's the most important thing -- men of a certain age should have their check-up every year."

Dancing with the Stars ninth season is currently slated to debut September 21 on ABC.






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