Eddie Van Halen is allegedly battling cancer again
Sources claim the icon has been seeking treatment in Germany.
Image: Daniel Knighton / Getty Images
Eddie Van Halen is battling cancer once again, according to several reports. This development comes almost two decades after he was declared cancer-free, having undergone surgery for tongue cancer.
According to a report by TMZ, the rock icon has been travelling from the US to Germany for the past five years to receive radiation treatment. TMZ’s sources said, “For the most part [the treatment has] worked to keep the disease in check.”
Van Halen was first diagnosed with cancer in 2000. He had a third of his tongue removed in 2002, and had been given the all-clear. But, according to TMZ, some of the cancer cells have migrated down his throat, requiring further treatment.
As for the cause of the disease, Van Halen, despite being a heavy smoker, attributes the cancer to cradling a metal plectrum in his mouth. “I used metal picks – they’re brass and copper – which I always held in my mouth, in the exact place where I got the tongue cancer,” Van Halen told Billboard in a 2015 interview. “Plus, I basically live in a recording studio that’s filled with electromagnetic energy. So that’s one theory.”
Van Halen last performed together in 2015, and just a couple of weeks ago, David Lee Roth extinguished any hopes for a reunion.
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