New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said Saturday he’s headed to the hospital in March to have what’s probably a cancerous tumor removed from his left kidney.
“The prognosis is very good and I’m profoundly grateful to my doctors for detecting the tumor early,” Murphy tweeted.
Murphy, 62, said he will undergo a partial nephrectomy, surgery in which doctors remove a tumor from a kidney while saving it.
As he announced his planned surgery, Murphy noted that 50,000 New Jerseyans will be diagnosed with cancer this year.
“I’m far from alone here,” he wrote. “It’s a situation that far too many families find themselves in. That’s why we’re fighting for them each and every day.”
“Health care is a right, and not a privilege for the select few,” he said in a followup tweet.
Murphy will undergo the surgery at a hospital in New York City, his office told NJ.com.
He told the news site that he doesn’t expect to need follow-up chemotherapy or radiation treatment.
