Former U.S. Senator undergoes cancer surgery

Published 8:46 pm Monday, July 15, 2019

ROCHESTER — Former U.S. Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota is undergoing surgery at Mayo Clinic to remove the cancerous part of a lung.

Coleman posted on his Facebook page that his surgery was scheduled for Monday, would remove about a quarter of his lungs and cut his lung capacity by up to 20%.

Last August, Coleman said he was being treated for Stage 4 lung cancer. He wrote that after “heavy doses of chemotherapy, the tumor was gone.”

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But after he had five weeks of intensive radiation, a follow-up scan found a spot on his lungs, and a biopsy determined that cancer had returned.

Coleman, a Republican, lost a close race to Democrat Al Franken in 2008.