Legislator's diagnosis: leukemia
Senator Charles E. Shannon, a former Lexington police officer who has served in the Legislature since 1991, has been diagnosed with leukemia, his office announced yesterday.
This is third time Shannon has battled cancer. In 1990 and in 2002, he was treated for a form of bone cancer called multiple myeloma.
Shannon, 61, will begin chemotherapy soon and is expected to be absent from the Legislature until February. For now, doctors have advised him to avoid crowds to lower the risk of catching a cold or other illness, said Sean Fitzgerald, his chief of staff.
"It's going to be debilitating -- that's why they want him at his strongest," Fitzgerald said.
Shannon, first elected in 1990, won reelection in November to his eighth term in an uncontested race. He plans to work from home during his recovery.
He was diagnosed with leukemia in October, his office said yesterday, but did not learn the extent of his treatment until recently.
Leukemia is a cancer of the blood, and Shannon's doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital are planning an intensive, seven-day chemotherapy treatment for Shannon, Fitzgerald said. No surgery is required, and the senator is expected to recover in about eight weeks.
"I have been down this road twice now, and I am determined to again beat this insidious disease back into remission," Shannon said in a statement.
In the statement, Dr. Steven McAfee, who will lead Shannon's medical team, said Shannon had a "common form of leukemia" that responds well to chemotherapy.
Benjamin Gedan can be reached at gedan@globe.com. 