Michael Douglas' Health Woes Top Off a Troubled Year

NEW YORK (CBS) It's been a hard year for Michael Douglas.

The Academy Award-winning actor is now facing eight weeks of radiation and chemotherapy after doctors discovered a tumor in his throat.

Douglas said in a statement that he was "optimistic" about his prognosis and expects to make a full recovery, but the health news comes during the same year that he endured his son Cameron's public legal troubles.

In January, Cameron Douglas pleaded guilty to dealing large quantities of methamphetamine and cocaine while holed up in a trendy Manhattan hotel where he was arrested last year. The 31-year-old was sentenced to five years in prison.

At the time, the actor said he believed is son's sentence was "adequate" and expressed hope that incarceration would give Cameron the time he needed to kick the drug habit that has plagued him since he was 13.

"He was going to be dead or somebody was going to kill him," Douglas said in an interview on NBC. "My son was a drug dealer, and he tried to kill himself for a while, and I can't condone his behavior."

He also accepted a major portion of the blame for his son's problems, describing himself as an absentee father during Cameron's youth due to focusing on building his career.

But despite 2010's troubles, the actor has also seen some triumphs. He received strong critical praise for his turn in the film "Solitary Man" and next month audiences will see him return to the big screen as Gordon Gekko in "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps." The film is the follow-up to 1987's "Wall Street," which earned Douglas an Oscar for Best Actor.