REPORT: Ex-Beatle George Harrison treated for brain tumor in Switzerland

Monday, July 9th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

BELLINZONA, Switzerland (AP) _ Former Beatle George Harrison is reportedly being treated for a brain tumor in Switzerland _ just two months after receiving lung cancer therapy in the United States.

Luca Borner, director of the Oncology Institute of Southern Switzerland in Bellinzona, declined to confirm the report of the weekly Sonntagszeitung. He told The Associated Press on Monday he could not comment because of patient confidentiality.

The paper said Harrison has visited Switzerland's Italian-speaking region of Ticino regularly in the past two months. It said he rented a house in Luino, Italy _ a 40-minute drive south from Bellinzona _ and was treated at the institute during May and June.

Harrison received cobalt treatment, a form of radiation therapy, the paper said.

Harrison, 58, has a history of cancer. He had surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., at the beginning of May to remove a cancerous growth from one of his lungs.

His lawyers said that after the successful operation he had traveled to Italy to rest.

He also was treated for throat cancer in the late 1990s after he found a lump on his neck. He had surgery followed by two courses of radiation therapy at the Royal Marsden Hospital, Britain's leading cancer treatment center.

``Luckily for me they found that this nodule was more of a warning than anything else. There are many different types of cancerous cells and this was a very basic type,'' he said at the time.

In 1999, Harrison also suffered a punctured lung when he was stabbed by a man who broke into his home west of London. Michael Abram, 34, was acquitted by reason of insanity and confined to a mental hospital.

Earlier this year, the intensely private Harrison said: ``I had a little throat cancer. I had a piece of my lung removed in 1997. And then I was almost murdered.

``But I seem to feel stronger. I don't smoke any more. I'm a little more short of breath than I used to be, so I don't see myself on stage lasting a full 14 rounds.''

The Beatles broke up in 1970 and Harrison, the youngest and quietest of the Fab Four went on to a successful solo career with hits including ``My Sweet Lord.''