Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), one of Congress's most senior Republicans and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has Hodgkin's disease, a cancer of the lymph system, his office said yesterday.
The senator "has an excellent chance of being completely cured," his oncologist, John H. Glick, said in the statement. Specter, 75, will undergo chemotherapy every two weeks for 24 to 32 weeks at Philadelphia's Abramson Cancer Center.
The statement said Specter expects to "be able to perform all duties of his office," which include many potentially bruising hearings on judicial nominees, starting March 1. President Bush recently resubmitted several nominees who were blocked last year by Democratic filibusters. Democrats have vowed to block them again, while GOP leaders have called the filibusters intolerable, placing the Judiciary Committee at the center of an approaching showdown.
Specter, who prides himself on playing squash daily, was elected to his fifth six-year term in November, after surviving a strong challenge from a staunch conservative in the GOP primary. More moderate than most Republican senators, Specter had to assure his colleagues last fall that he would push to get Bush's judicial nominees out of committee and to the floor.
The statement said Specter has "experienced persistent fevers and enlarged lymph nodes under his left arm and above his left clavicle." Tests Monday "involved biopsy of a lymph node and biopsy of bone marrow. The lymph node was positive for Hodgkin's. The bone marrow biopsy showed no cancer." Later tests found that he has stage IVB Hodgkin's disease, the statement said.
The disease "has a five-year survival rate of 70 percent," Glick said, adding that Specter "is in superb physical condition." He will undergo ABVD chemotherapy, which involves the drugs Adriamycin, bleomycin, vinblastine and dacarbazine.
Specter said in the statement: "I have beaten a brain tumor, bypass heart surgery and many tough political opponents; and I'm going to beat this too. I have a lot more work to do for Pennsylvania and America."
