Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf Has 'Treatable' Prostate Cancer
(Reuters) - Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf announced on Wednesday that he has a "treatable form" of prostate cancer but said it would not interfere with his official duties.
"I'm not going to be incapacitated at all by this," Wolf told reporters at a news conference alongside his wife, Frances. "It's eminently treatable."
The 67-year-old Democrat said he would begin a months-long regimen of treatment within the coming weeks. He would not go into details of the treatment but described it as "minor" and "routine" and said it would not include chemotherapy.
Wolf, a businessman, defeated Republican incumbent Tom Corbett in 2014.
Since his election, the state has been locked in a bitter budget battle. It still has only a partial spending plan for the current fiscal year, which began more than seven months ago.
Illinois, the U.S. state with the country's lowest credit rating, is the only other state without a current budget in place.
Wolf and the Republican-controlled state legislature have been fighting over whether to implement a severance tax on natural gas producers, among other tax hikes, and use the revenues to increase education spending.
Wolf said his doctor found some abnormalities during a routine examination in late November or early December and that further testing had confirmed the cancer.
"Prostate cancer is something that older men get," he said. "A lot of older men die with prostate cancer; not a lot die of it."
He said he hoped his announcement would reinforce the importance of getting annual checkups.
Other governors have also continued to work while undergoing treatment for cancer.
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, 59, a Republican, pledged in June 2015 to keep working despite chemotherapy for advanced cancer of the lymph nodes. California Governor Jerry Brown, 77, a Democrat, kept a full schedule in 2012 while receiving treatment for prostate cancer.
(Reporting by Joseph Ax; Additional reporting by Hilary Russ and Barbara Goldberg; Editing by Nick Zieminski)