Michael Douglas has overcome throat cancer, he says

"I think the odds are with the tumor gone and what I know about this particular type of cancer that I've got it beat," he told host Matt Lauer of "Today" in an interview to air on NBC Tuesday.

"I have to check out on a monthly basis now to maintain. I guess there's not a total euphoria. I'll probably take a couple of months of getting checked out. But it's been a wild six-month ride," Douglas said in his first television interview since undergoing cancer treatment.

The experience left him with an appreciation of finite time, he said.

"It's put a timeline on my life," he said. "I'm 66 now. You know, I'm fortunate I've got a mother who's 88 -- she'll kill me -- she may be 87. My father's 94. So, you know, I feel good about those genes. But it's definitely a third act. And so you're a little more conscious of your time in how you choose to spend it."
"I guess curiosity's gotten them a lot of coverage -- sort of following it. And there's so many outlets now these days. I mean, I just feel for all these young kids. I mean, the generations now, with the amount of paparazzi that they have and these video cameras -- you know, you just can't do anything," Douglas said.

"And I resent the amount of imposition on our children, too, because it used to be at least they would try to keep them out of that, and they don't at all (now). They were having -- there was sort of a macabre enjoyment out of sort of watching me go down there for a while, I felt, by the paparazzi," he said.