'Life of Pi' star Irrfan Khan reveals he has a rare tumor
CNN/Stylemagazine.com Newswire | 3/19/2018, 7:32 a.m.
Actor Irrfan Khan attends the premiere of his film "Puzzle" at the Sundance Film Festival in January.
Source: C Flanigan/FilmMagic/Getty Image
By Lisa Respers France, CNN
(CNN) -- Bollywood star Irrfan Khan tweeted Friday that he has been diagnosed with a neuroendocrine tumor.
Such rare tumors are "abnormal growths that begin in specialized cells called neuroendocrine cells," according to the Mayo Clinic. They can occur anywhere in the body and be both cancerous and benign.
The actor, who is best known in the United States for roles in "Life Of Pi," "Slumdog Millionaire" and "The Amazing Spider-Man," first revealed earlier this month he had "a rare disease."
"Sometimes you wake up with a jolt with life shaking you up," he wrote in a statement on Twitter. "The last fifteen days, my life has been a suspense story. Little had I known that my search for rare stories would make me find a rare disease."
At the time, Khan, 51, asked fans not to speculate about his illness.
On Friday, he tweeted a photo of a statement that began with the quote "Life is under no obligation to give us what we expect" from author Margaret Mitchell.
"The unexpected makes us grow, which is what the past few days have been about," Khan wrote. "Learning that I have been diagnosed with NeuroEndocrine Tumour as of now has admittedly been difficult, but the love and strength of those around me and that I found within me has brought me to a place of hope."
He also dismissed wild speculation about his health.
"As for the rumours that were floated NEURO is not always about the brain and googling is the easiest way to do research," Khan wrote.
