Warren Buffett diagnosed with early stage prostate cancer

NEW YORK�Billionaire investor Warren Buffett told shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway on Tuesday that he has prostate cancer but "feels great" and will continue to run the conglomerate during treatments.

In a letter to Berkshire (BRK.B) investors, Buffett, 81, the chairman and CEO, said he has been diagnosed with early stage prostate cancer and that he will commence daily radiation treatment in mid-July. Buffett, nicknamed the Oracle of Omaha for his investment prowess, stressed that his condition is treatable and is "not remotely life-threatening or even debilitating in any meaningful way."

The five-year survival rate for the type of cancer Buffett has � a stage 1 tumor, in which the cancer hasn't spread outside the prostate gland � is 100%, according to the American Cancer Society. Even after 15 years, the survival rate for all stages of prostate cancer combined is 91%.

Buffett's letter suggests he will continue to run Berkshire as he has for almost 50 years. His upcoming treatment would restrict Buffett's travel but would not otherwise change his normal work schedule. Still, the statement got investors talking about the succession plan at Berkshire. At the annual meeting in February, Buffett said the board had identified the person to succeed him as CEO, but the person was not identified.

"When a transfer of responsibility is required, it will be seamless, and Berkshire's prospects will remain bright," Buffett wrote in February in his letter to shareholders. Buffett also said there were two backup candidates.

Jeff Matthews, a Berkshire investor and author of Secrets In Plain Sight: Business & Investing Secrets of Warren Buffett, says the news "tells us that he is mortal and also reinforces the idea that the succession planning he has been working on will be needed."

Survival Chances

More than 200,000 men are diagnosed annually with prostate cancer and about 30,000 will die from the disease. Five-year survival rates:

*About four of five prostate cancers are found in this early stage.

Source: American Cancer Society

Credits: Kevin A. Kepple, Anne Carey and Liz Szabo

While Buffett is irreplaceable, investors say he has stitched together a strong group of companies, ranging from railroads to retail, that will prosper long after he is gone.

"It's a shock to everybody," says Andy Kilpatrick, author of Of Permanent Value: The Story of Warren Buffett. "But his life will go on, and Berkshire will go on. There's no need for any emergency alarm. But it's something to watch over the next three to five years."

Most prostate tumors grow very slowly, especially in older men, in whom the disease is extremely common. Autopsy studies, in fact, have found that most men will die with cancer in their prostate cancer, although most never knew it.

Because prostate cancer is so slow-growing, the medical community has been hotly debating how just aggressively to screen for it and treat it. That's because the treatments � which can lead to impotence, incontinence, and even death � can cause more harm than the actual cancers, says Otis Brawley, the cancer society's chief medical officer, in his recent book, How We Do Harm.

In December, an expert panel from the National Institutes of Health said that about 100,000 of the 240,000 men diagnosed with prostate cancer annually don't need immediate treatment, and instead could safely opt for "active surveillance" � monitoring the disease with tests and scans to see if it grows, rather than going straight to surgery or radiation.

In October, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an independent expert panel that advises the government on health care, announced that healthy men should no longer be screened with the Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) blood test for prostate cancer. The risk of causing harm outweighed the uncertain benefits, the task force said.

Studies have failed to clearly show that getting a PSA test saves many lives, if any, Brawley says.

Contributing: Liz Szabo