Andrew Lloyd Webber Has Cancer

Composer/producer Andrew Lloyd Webber has been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

A spokeswoman for the 61 year-old said in a statement “The condition is in its very early stages. Andrew is now undergoing treatment and expects to be fully back at work before the end of the year.”

Lloyd Webber is best known for his musicals “Phantom of the Opera”, “Cats”, “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “Evita”.

Recently he has been working on a sequel to “Phantom of the Opera”, the longest running musical on Broadway, called “Love Never Dies” which is scheduled to open in March in London and on Broadway the following November.

It is estimated that 234,000 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed in the United States this year. That makes prostate cancer the most common cancer among American men, except for skin cancer. More than 27,000 deaths due to prostate cancer are expected to occur this year.

According to Cancer.Org, since the use of early detection tests for prostate cancer became fairly common (about 1990), the prostate cancer death rate has dropped. But it isn’t yet clear if this drop is a direct result of screening or caused by something else, like improvements in treatment.