Michael Douglas expected to take part in Stand up to Cancer telethon

A team of more than 100 stars from Hollywood, sports, music and more will take part in this year’s Stand up to Cancer telethon on Friday. This is the third year for the telethon, which raised more than $100 million for cancer research since its launch in 2008.

The hour-long Stand Up to Cancer telethon is set to take over four major U.S. networks – ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC. Musical performances from Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong, The Edge, Stevie Wonder, Lady Antebellum, Natasha Bedingfield. Some of the stars in attendance include Denzel Washington, Adam Sandler, Sally Field, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and George Clooney, just to name a few.

The event this year will be hosted by Diane Sawyer, Brian Williams and Katie Couric. Couric lost her husband Jay to colon cancer when he was only 42. Just three years later, pancreatic cancer took the life of her sister, Emily. “[Cancer] completely destroyed my family twice,” she told PEOPLE magazine in 2008.

Some of the money will go to research against pancreatic cancer. This year, more than 43,000 Americans will be diagnosed with it, and almost 37,000 will die of it. It has already claimed the lives of people like Michael Landon and Patrick Swayze.

Cancer survivors, including Christina Applegate, Maura Tierney, Michael C. Hall, Elizabeth Edwards, Ethan Zohn, Sofia Vergara and cyclist Lance Armstrong, will also take part in the telethon.

Among those taking part will be actor Michael Douglas. Douglas who recently announced to the world that he has stage 4 throat cancer.

Douglas said he was told three weeks ago that he had throat cancer, and it limited to his head and neck. Doctors have told him he has an 80% chance of beating the cancer. He has just finished his first week of radiation and chemotherapy.

The Stand up to Cancer telethon will air at 8 p.m. EDT. (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX)