Barilaro accuses MPs after cancer scare

NSW Deputy Premier and Nationals leader John Barilaro has accused some of his colleagues of taking advantage of his cancer scare by canvassing the prospect of a new leader.

Doctors discovered an abnormal lump in his throat after a string of tests over about four months.

"When word got out last week I was dealing with this issue, some of my own colleagues had quickly diagnosed me with cancer (none of them health professionals), and thought it was the right time to speak about a new leader," Mr Barilaro wrote in an opinion piece published in The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday.

"Word quickly got back to me and maybe I shouldn't have been surprised, but you realise political friendships can be fickle. Early on so many told me 'that's politics'.

"Well, it shouldn't be."

Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce said he heard Mr Barilaro had cancer from an "innocuous" source - "not even a high-profile person" - while at a cafe in Sydney.

"I heard the people who were peddling it, the snipers, and thinking 'oh well, fair enough'," he told Sydney's 2GB radio on Tuesday.

"That's obviously rubbish and it's just for the purpose of getting rid of him.

"They're not very good snipers."

He said he later saw a more senior politician who assured him "it was all rubbish ... and obviously it was".

Mr Barilaro was due to have surgery on the lump in his throat on Tuesday but it's now been cancelled after doctors deemed the procedure too risky because of nerve issues.