Christopher Hitchens, the iconoclastic writer, is to undergo chemotherapy after being diagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus.
In a short statement on the Vanity Fair website, he writes:
I have been advised by my physician that I must undergo a course of chemotherapy on my esophagus. This advice seems persuasive to me. I regret having had to cancel so many engagements at such short notice.
Hitchens, 61, and a renowned heavy smoker until giving up several years ago, made the announcement after cutting short a US tour promoting his latest book, Hitch 22. It followed his appearance last month at the Guardian Hay Festival.
As a journalist, critic and polemicist, Hitchens has carved out a reputation for barbed repartee, scathing critiques of public figures and a fierce intelligence.
In his 2008 book God Is Not Great, Hitchens put himself on a collision course with major religions with his trenchant atheist views.
He recently tried, along with fellow campaigning atheist Richard Dawkins, to have the Pope arrested when he visited Britain for what they allege was his complicity in covering up child sex abuse in the Catholic church.
Hitchens, born in Britain, lives in Washington and retained his British citizenship when he also became an American citizen in 2007.
His brother, Peter, is a columnist for the Mail on Sunday.
