Comedian Kanpei Hazama, now on a run-and-sail trip around the world, has prostate cancer, his organizers said Thursday.
But the 60-year-old comedian will continue his "Earth Marathon," covering 20,000 km by land and 16,000 km by sea, while undergoing treatment, the organizers said.
They said the experienced endurance runner was diagnosed Jan. 5 after a PSA (prostate-specific antigen) test and biopsy gave back an irregular reading in Turkey in December.
He began to undergo hormonal therapy Wednesday to cure the disease, which develops in the prostate gland, the organizers said.
Hazama crossed the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul from the European side on mid-December, entering Asia about a year after departing from Osaka in late 2008.
He will resume running from a suburb in Ankara on Friday. "I would like to complete the journey as soon as possible. While continuing the trip, I will do all I can to cure the disease," Hazama said in a statement.
Hazama left Osaka in December 2008 to embark on a 600-km foot trip to Kamogawa, Chiba Prefecture, that started his journey to run and sail around the globe.
From Kamogawa, he sailed a yacht across the Pacific Ocean in three months to Los Angeles and then spent four months running across the United States from Long Beach, Calif., to New York.
Next up was the Atlantic Ocean, a 5,000-km voyage that took him more than 30 days to complete after setting sail from the Hudson River in New York in mid-July. He arrived in a French port in mid-August to embark on the European leg of the trip.
Hazama arrived in Turkey on Dec. 6 via Bulgaria. He is scheduled to return to Osaka later this year after running through Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and China.
