HOLLYWOOD - George Harrison has once again been a victim of a tabloid rumor after London's Sunday People reported he may only have a week to live.
Harrison is said to be "fading fast" after his recent cancer treatment failed to beat his brain tumor, the paper reported. In addition, the paper says his wife Olivia and son Dhani have been told that the singer could "slip away at any time."
A "family friend" told Sunday People that "it's only a matter of days" until the singer departs this world. "Everything possible has been done to try and save him...yet he is fading fast."
The former Beatle spent last week at New York's Staten Island University Hospital where he was treated for his cancer. After his release on Nov. 22, he took a private jet to Los Angeles, where he was treated with conventional chemotherapy at the UCLA Medical Centre, ABCNEWS.com reports.
Sunday People reports that a UCLA spokesman told the paper on Friday, "He is very weak and the prognosis is dire...but there is still real determination to try to save his life."
According to ABCNews.com, longtime friends Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr reportedly visited Harrison at Staten Island University Hospital last week.
"It was a very sad meeting," a source told Sunday People. "George's death will be a major blow to both of them."
Beatles' fans shouldn't lose hope for Harrison's health anytime soon, though. Sunday People quoted a friend of Harrison's who says, "George is fighting to the end."
The singer has waged a long battle with cancer during the last months.
In May, he underwent surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., to remove a cancerous growth from one of his lungs, CNN reports.
He was treated for throat cancer after doctors found a lump on his neck in 1997. He received courses of radiation therapy at Britain's leading cancer treatment center, the Royal Marsden Hospital.
Harrison was almost killed in late 1999 when a crazed fan broke into his home near London, stabbing him 10 times and puncturing one of his lungs.
He has blamed years of cigarette smoking for his illness.