Deborah Norville (Photo: "Inside Edition")

Deborah Norville, longtime host of “Inside Edition” and former Chicago news anchor, underwent surgery Tuesday to have a cancerous nodule removed from her thyroid.

“Out of surgery. Everything went great,” she tweeted through an assistant.

Norville, 60, credited an astute viewer with alerting her to a lump on her neck that turned out to be what her doctor called “a very localized form of cancer.”

In a video message posted Monday, Norville said: "We live in a world of 'see something, say something,' and I'm really glad we do. When you work on television, viewers comment on everything – your hair, your makeup, the dress you wear, and a long time ago an 'Inside Edition' viewer reached out to say she'd seen something on my neck. It was a lump. Well, I'd never noticed the thing, but I did have it checked out and the doctor said it was nothing, a thyroid nodule. And for years, it was nothing. Until recently, it was something."

Norville said she did not expect to have chemotherapy or radiation, but would be away from her show for a while.

Chicago fans still have fond memories of Norville’s five-year run as a news anchor and reporter at NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5. In 1986, her promotion to NBC News in New York prompted an official proclamation from then-Mayor Harold Washington, among other tributes.

After high-profile positions at three networks, Norville replaced Bill O’Reilly as anchor of “Inside Edition” in 1995.

In Chicago “Inside Edition” airs at 3 p.m. weekdays on ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7.