Tsongas Confirms Recurrence of Cancer, Says It Is Treatable

Former Democratic presidential candidate Paul E. Tsongas, who has twice battled cancer, confirmed Monday that a new growth in his abdomen is cancerous.

“That’s the bad news,” Tsongas, 51, said at a news conference. “The good news is that it’s contained.”

The former U.S. senator from Massachusetts said he will undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatment as early as Thursday and that those measures should effectively remove the cancer, which he identified as large-cell lymphoma.

Large-cell lymphoma is more aggressive than its small-cell counterpart but is considered more effectively treatable with chemotherapy and radiation.

Tsongas ended his Senate career in 1984 after he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. His condition worsened despite conventional treatment, and he underwent an experimental operation in July, 1986, in which some bone marrow was removed and treated to kill the cancer cells.

Doctors also removed a lymph node that was found to have lymphoma from Tsongas’ armpit in 1987. His health was a major issue in the presidential campaign, and he told reporters even before he formally announced his candidacy that his doctors had given him a clean bill of health to run for the White House.