U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, who was diagnosed with stage 4 kidney cancer and had a kidney removed in May, announced Tuesday that she has “some small spots in my thyroid gland.”
Hirono, 69, said she will undergo immunotherapy during the next three months, which she described as “a cutting-edge treatment, to enable my own immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells.”
“I expect that this therapy will work for me. That is my hope and expectation,” Hirono said in a recorded message.
Hirono has undergone surgery twice since her cancer diagnosis: once to remove a kidney, and once in June to remove a lesion on her seventh rib. That required removing a portion of her rib.
Hirono thanked those who have expressed their concern and asked about her health, and said, “I expect to continue to do my job during the course of this treatment.”
“And of course I will be running for re-election in 2018,” she said in her statement. “Having cancer sucks, but I know that there are people in our country facing major health issues every single day. They’re doing the best they can, and so am I. I don’t expect my treatment to interfere with my job as your United States senator.”
Hirono stressed that immunotherapy is unlike chemotherapy, which suppresses the immune system. She said former President Jimmy Carter has also benefited from immunotherapy in his fight against melanoma.
The Cancer Research Institute describes immunotherapy as “targeted therapies (that are) the most often first treatment method for advanced stages of kidney cancers.”
According to the Institute for Clinical Immuno-Oncology, several new immunotherapies have been introduced in the last decade to treat kidney cancer. Chemotherapy is typically used only if immunotherapies and other targeted therapies are tried and prove to be unsuccessful, according to CRI.
