Congressman Says He'll Beat Cancer

Rep. Dan Kildee said Friday he's headed for surgery to remove a cancerous tumor on a tonsil. He'll be out of the office for awhile, the Michigan Democrat said in a statement, but he expects to recover and return to work in Congress. "I am going to get through this," Kildee said, per the Hill. "I'm going to beat cancer." Kildee said he'd scheduled a scan for what he thought was a swollen lymph node. Tests found the problem was squamous cell carcinoma, which he described as "a serious but curable form of cancer." Kildee said that the surgery will take place in several weeks and that he'll need several more weeks to recover.

Other House Democrats have reported cancer diagnoses recently, per Axios. Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin said in December that he would begin chemotherapy for Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma. Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro announced last month that he'd had surgery to remove gastrointestinal neuroendocrine tumors, a cancer that forms in the GI tract. He said the surgery was a success. Kildee, 64, said his office will stay open while he's out, per the Washington Post. It's not easy to be told you have cancer, Kildee said, per Michigan Live. "But I know that so many other families have gone through a cancer diagnosis," he added. (More Dale Kildee stories.)