California Gov. Jerry Brown is being treated with radiation for early stage prostate cancer, his office announced Wednesday.

The 74-year-old Brown is receiving a short course of conventional radiotherapy for "localized prostate cancer," the statement said.

Brown's "prognosis is excellent, and there are not expected to be any significant side effects," University of California, San Francisco oncologist Eric Small said.

The radiation treatment will be completed the week of Jan. 7, and Brown will continue to work a full schedule, the statement said.

Brown's spokesman Gil Duran declined further comment.

It is the governor's second bout with cancer. He underwent minor surgery in spring 2011 to remove a cancerous growth on his nose. He was put under local anesthetic and doctors removed basal cell carcinoma, a common, slow-growing form of skin cancer, from the right side of his nose.

The governor underwent a type of surgery known as Mohs, or micrographic surgery, in which a doctor can tell even before the wound is closed that all the cancerous cells have been removed.

Brown is the son of former two-term governor Edmund G. Brown and has spent a lifetime in politics, including terms as the secretary of state, attorney general and mayor of Oakland.