Nile Rodgers battling cancer

Chic guitarist Nile Rodgers is fighting cancer.

The 58-year-old musician, who has worked with David Bowie and Duran Duran, revealed he had "disappeared" because of the illness which was diagnosed with in October.

He wrote on his website: "On October 27, 2010, I found out I had aggressive cancer. In an instant, everything in my happy-music universe imploded. It was like Jaws was savagely eating me from the inside out.

"My biopsy showed that I had to make some important decisions - fast. After consulting with numerous doctors, I decided to have radical surgery to try and remove the cancer in its entirety."

Nile - who has produced a string of hits including 'Remember the Time' by Michael Jackson, 'We Are Famliy' by Sister Sledge and 'Material Girl' by Madonna - went on to say that he had kept his cancer a secret until now because he didn't want to worry his family.

He added: "I told only a handful of people because I didn't want to worry anyone, especially, my family around the holidays. I did everything as usual - as best I could - until one day I couldn't.

"My hand had sudden muscle loss and a number of stressful events followed. I've just returned home from the hospital and want to explain my recent disappearance to everybody and share my appreciation of life, music and people."

It is not known what form of cancer Nile is presently battling, or how successful his treatment has been so far, but he has written a number of posts on twitter so say he is remaining positive.

In one post he wrote: "They say even in bad news there's a gift-Cancer makes you THINK a lot-My gift is the life I've already had, everything else is gravy."

In another he thanked a fans for their well wishes, writing: "Thanks man. This is NO FUN, but I'm getting a little stronger every day (sic)."