MUMBAI MIRROR (March 17, 2018)

Ten days after he took to the social media to share the news of a mystery illness and urged everyone to refrain from speculating till the diagnosis was in, Irrfan Khan has revealed that he has a neuroendocrine tumour.

“The unexpected makes up grow, which is what the past few days have been about. 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. The journey of this is taking me out of the country, and I request everyone to continue sending their wishes. As for the rumours that were floated NEURO is not always about the brain and googling is the easiest way to do research... To those who waited for my words, I hope to be back with more stories to tell,” informed the 51-year-old actor on Twitter on Friday, starting out with a quote from American author-journalist Margaret Mitchell, “Life is under no obligation to give us what we expect.”

The rare disease reportedly affects the body’s hormonal messaging system and studies suggest it afflicts just 35 in 100,000 people. Health experts say neuroendocrine tumours can develop in many different organs of the body and can be cancerous or non-cancerous.