Former UFO bass player PETE WAY is suffering from cancer.

The legendary four-stringer was told he has cancer of the prostate after tests this summer. He is having treatment and feels “good, positive and determined to beat it,” he told British magazine Classic Rock this weekend.

Release of WAY’s new album Walking On The Edge has been postponed until early in the New Year so he can undergo more treatment, specifically a month-long series of radiotherapy sessions to shrink the tumour, and more hormone medication

“I’m lucky,” said Way, 62. “This is prostate cancer. It’s not lung cancer. It’s not pancreatic cancer. If you’re going to get cancer, this is the best one you can have – and they caught it early.”

The cancer was spotted by accident, Pete revealed. Doctors were far more concerned about the state of his battered liver, enlarged by hepatitis and years of abuse. Routine liver scans picked up the tumour on his prostate.