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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff announced in a YouTube video posted Monday that he's been diagnosed with cancer.
Shurtleff said during an emergency appendectomy last week, after experiencing stomach problems, doctors found a malignant tumor.
He said he is fortunate that doctors caught the tumor early and that it was removed intact and that his treatment will involve removing part of his colon.
"It usually doesn't manifest itself in the appendix like that, very, very rare," Shurtleff said in the video, "but it doesn't manifest itself until it bursts, and if that happens you're in a world of hurt because then it gets all inside your abdomen."Shurtleff called it, "a little shocking" but he doesn't expect the surgery to slow him down for more than a few weeks.
The 53-year-old Republican, who was first elected in 2000, said it is another reminder that cancer can affect anyone at any time.
"This is just a reminder that cancer, in all of its horrible forms, impacts just about everybody's lives," he said. "Everybody knows somebody who has been sick, who has lost their lives to cancer, who is struggling with it right now."
Shurtleff closed by urging frequent and thorough checkups and for men to have a colonoscopy.
