Larry King reveals lung cancer surgery

Talk show host Larry King said he was diagnosed with lung cancer during a routine visit to the doctor, Us Weekly reported.

The early diagnosis allowed King, 83, to have surgery and recover from the 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,'" King told Us Weekly. “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.’”

King underwent surgery on July 17 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Us Weekly reported.

"The doctor said to me, 'It was malignant but you were in the first stage,”’ King said. “‘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.’”

After a two-week recovery, 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."

King has had several health issues through the years. He had a heart attack in February 1987 and had bypass surgery 10 months later after being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

Then, in his 70s, he found out that he had prostate cancer, which was treated with radiation and did not require surgery.

King hasn't smoked since his heart attack, but the doctor told him that tobacco from 30 years ago is still related to his lung cancer.

"Larry King Now," which just began its sixth season, airs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at www.ora.tv/LarryKingNow.

King doesn't have any plans to slow down.

. "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 told Us Weekly. "I've never, ever felt better than I do now."

Cox Media Group