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Aug 21, 2008 1:43 pm US/Eastern
Lt. Gov. Knoll Diagnosed With Cancer
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) ―
Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll was diagnosed with cancer
in early July and has been undergoing radiation and chemotherapy treatments,
her spokesman said Thursday.
Knoll, 77 and a native of the Pittsburgh
suburb of McKees Rocks, is Pennsylvania's
first woman lieutenant governor. She took office in January 2003 alongside Gov.
Ed Rendell, and their second terms expire in January 2011.
Knoll told Rendell that she was being treated
for an illness during the second week of July, while she was receiving
radiation therapy, but did not reveal to him until Saturday that she had cancer,
said Salvatore M. Sirabella, her chief of staff.
Similarly, she put off any public disclosure of
the diagnosis until Wednesday because she wanted to inform the members of her large,
extended family, Sirabella said.
She said in a letter posted on her Web site on
Wednesday that she plans to resume a full work schedule and preside over the
state Senate, "gavel in hand," when lawmakers reconvene next month.
Knoll, who has not worked at her Capitol office
since she was diagnosed, has stayed mainly at her official residence at Fort Indiantown
Gap, about 25 miles northeast of Harrisburg,
but has maintained regular contact with her staff and even cast a vote by phone
Thursday in her capacity as chairman of the state Pardons Board.
She is being treated at Hershey Medical
Center, but Sirabella declined
to identify her doctors.
"The family wants to keep that private," he
said at an impromptu news briefing.
Details about Knoll's condition and prognosis remained
vague. Sirabella identified the
diagnosis as endocrine cancer. He said he did not know the exact location of
the cancer or whether it has spread.
Knoll's letter said the cancer was detected
during a routine medical examination and that she had not felt any symptoms
before that.
"Much to the surprise of my family and close
friends, I'm being obedient, doing what the doctors tell me to do," the letter
said. "Those doctors say I'm responding
well. Although the treatments will continue, the outlook is good. I'm
optimistic. Most of all, I feel fine and I anticipate resuming a full work
schedule."
Knoll is currently receiving her second course
of chemotherapy, Sirabella said. She was hospitalized during the first round of
chemotherapy because her temperature was elevated, but she was released after
two days, he said.
Rendell said he and his wife, U.S. Circuit Judge
Marjorie O.
Rendell, were "deeply saddened" by the news of Knoll's
diagnosis.
"To know Catherine is to understand that she is
a person of incredible strength and determination," Rendell said in a statement.
"These qualities will help her through this difficult time."
Besides her duties as Senate president and on
the Board of Pardons, Knoll also serves on the Pennsylvania Emergency
Management Council and the Local Government Advisory Committee.
Before she was elected lieutenant governor,
Knoll served two four-year terms as state treasurer. She ran for governor in
1994, but lost the Democratic nomination to then-Lt. Gov. Mark Singel.
Under the state constitution, if Knoll is
unable to complete her term, Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati would
become lieutenant governor.
Scarnati, R-Jefferson, underwent surgery
earlier this year to remove papillary thyroid cancer.
"As somebody ... who had cancer surgery and
subsequent recovery from it this year, my heartfelt prayers go out to her
through her treatments and recovery," he told The Patriot-News of Harrisburg.
On the Net: http://www.ltgovernor.state.pa.us
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