Coburn: ‘I’ll whip’ prostate cancer

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said he will “whip” a recurrence of prostate cancer.

{mosads}In an interview broadcast Sunday night on C-SPAN, Coburn said the notion that he is retiring due to the cancer is false, saying he made the decision to leave the Senate “about four months” before he learned that it had returned.

“My patience is running thin with the way Congress works,” he said. “I’m bowing out of the Senate, but I’m not bowing out of the debate.”

Coburn, who announced in January that he’d retire at the end of the year, forgoing the final two years of his term, also suffered from melanoma and colon cancer.

Coburn, a physician himself, described his cancer as “fairly rare,” saying it will probably require surgery this spring and chemical therapies.

“We have wonderful therapies that can prolong life,” he said.

Coburn said he had faith and his doctors and did not expect to be slowed down once he recovers from the surgery.

“I’ll whip this present situation. … It’ll just take me some time to do that.”