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Stuart McLean Cancels CBC 'Vinyl Cafe' After Cancer Diagnosis

"I don’t know what to say except, I am sorry."

The host of CBC Radio's popular show "Vinyl Cafe" is cancelling its annual Christmas tour because he is fighting melanoma.

Stuart McLean said he will be starting therapy next week, he revealed on Vinyl Cafe's Facebook page Saturday.

Some unexpected and disappointing news. We have to call off the Vinyl Cafe Christmas...

Posted by Vinyl Cafe on Saturday, November 21, 2015

McLean said he considered doing the show while also undergoing treatment, but didn't want to go through with the performances without bringing his "best self."

"It feels like I invited everyone to dinner and am calling to say the party’s off," he wrote. "I don’t know what to say except, I am sorry."

His diagnosis isn't as ominous as it sounds, said McLean.

"The treatment is, as my wonderful doctor describes it, the poster child of cancer therapy," he wrote. "He tells me a positive outcome for the immunotherapy I will be receiving should be in the neighbourhood of 85%."

"... the likelihood of this being a bump in the road rather than the end of the road is by far the most expected outcome."

He told fans not to worry, saying there were people much sicker than he is, "who both need and deserve your concern."

"I am otherwise healthy and, as I said, the likelihood of this being a bump in the road rather than the end of the road is by far the most expected outcome," he said.

Every weekend, over two million people listen to "Vinyl Cafe" on CBC Radio, Sirius Satellite Radio and on U.S. public radio stations, according to the network.

The tour — which had 16 more stops in Western Canada, Seattle, Ontario and Quebec — will be cancelled after a Sunday show in Thunder Bay. Refunds will be available from the outlet where tickets were purchased, starting Tuesday.

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