Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson Treated For Cancer, Prognosis "Extremely Good"

Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson has been undergoing cancer treatments since just before Christmas, recently completing a seven-week course for chemotherapy and radiology. A statement on the band's website said tests discovered a small tumor on the back of the singers tongue.

The group reports that Dickinson's prognosis is "extremely good" given the tumor was caught in the early stages. Doctors expect him to be given the "all clear" by late May.

"We would ask for your patience, understanding and respect for Bruce and his family's privacy until we update everyone by the end of May," the band said collectively, "Bruce is doing very well considering the circumstances, and the whole team is very positive."

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Iron Maiden remain one of the most popular touring bands in the world and a report in late 2013 suggested the metal group were using analytics from BitTorrent websites to plot their tour dates. In recent years, the group had focused touring heavily on South America after seeing a surge of traffic - both illegal and legal - on the continent. Musicmetric revealed that fans in Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia and Chile each ranked among the top 10 countries with the most Maiden followers.

The band's strategy appeared to pay off online too and Iron Maiden welcomed over 3.1 million fans to its social media pages.

"Maiden have been rather successful in turning free file-sharing into fee-paying fans," said Musicmetric CEO Gregory Mead at the time. "If you engage with fans, there is a chance to turn a percentage into paying customers. You can see that through various bands using the BitTorrent network in a legal way to share content."