Warren Buffett says he has been diagnosed with early-stage prostate cancer but the 81-year-old chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is giving no indication he plans on retiring any time soon.

The billionaire investing legend assured shareholders in a letter made public late Tuesday that his condition is "not remotely life-threatening." The two-month radiation treatment he and his doctors plan to start in mid-July will restrict his travel but shouldn't otherwise affect his routine, he said.

"I feel great — as if I were in my normal excellent health," Buffett said. "And my energy level is 100 percent."

Cancer experts say Buffett's diagnosis shouldn't be a major concern because it appears his doctors caught the disease early. Still, the news will remind Berkshire investors of Buffett's mortality. And the disclosure is bound to give rise to fresh speculation about who will eventually succeed Buffett at the Berkshire's helm.

Buffett said he was diagnosed April 11 and has received tests including a CAT scan, a bone scan and an MRI. He said the tests showed no indication of cancer elsewhere in his body.

"The chance of dying of prostate cancer for Mr. Buffett in the next 10 years is probably 2 or 3 percent, so the prognosis is great," said Dr. Ralph deVere White, director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, Davis.


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FILE- In this Monday, July 18, 2011, file... View Full Caption

Buffett is known for a no-nonsense approach to investing. He is one of the world's richest men — his stake in Berkshire Hathaway is worth about $44.6 billion — and in recent years he has become one of its most generous philanthropists.

He and Berkshire's board have a succession plan in place. Berkshire plans to split Buffett's job into three parts — CEO, chairman and several investment managers — when the company does need to replace him.

He told shareholders in February that Berkshire's board has chosen someone to succeed him as CEO — someday — and he said there are two backup candidates.

None of the three has been publicly identified.

Buffett has said Berkshire hasn't even told the successor and backups who they are. But he has said his son Howard, a member of Berkshire's board, would make an ideal chairman. And Berkshire has hired two hedge fund managers — Todd Combs and Ted Weschler — over the past two years who Buffett says are capable of eventually running the company's entire portfolio.

The AFL-CIO, which owns some Berkshire stock, has submitted a shareholder proposal that's up for a vote at Berkshire's annual meeting in May asking whether the company should be compelled to disclose more specifics about its succession plan. More than 30,000 people typically attend the meeting to hear Buffett and Vice Chairman Charlie Munger answer questions from analysts, reporters and shareholders.

Berkshire's insurance, railroad and utility businesses typically account for more than half of its net income. It also owns clothing, furniture, brick and jewelry firms and has major investments in such companies as American Express Co., International Business Machines Corp., Washington Post Co. and Wells Fargo & Co.

Although Buffett's investment success has made his a household name — and made him a Wall Street oracle — he still works in his hometown of Omaha and lives in a house he bought in 1958.