HOUSTON – On Wednesday, the mayor of Houston, Sylvester Turner, disclosed his cancer diagnosis during the State of the City Address.
Mayor Sylvester Turner made the announcement before a packed room of business leaders and local officials who came to hear about his plans to make the city stronger.
Turner revealed he was battling osteosarcoma, which is a type of bone cancer that forms when something goes wrong in one of the cells responsible for making new bones, according to the Mayo Clinic.
“I go to the dentist to get a root canal (before being) on my way to France with the trade missions and doctors came and said, ‘Uh, (it’s) a little bit more than a root canal,” Turner explained.
The mayor said that the dental visit led to a biopsy and a nine-hour surgery on July 30 on his jaw where the cancer was discovered. He said doctors had to reconstruct the bones in his jaw by taking some from his legs.
“(I was) In the hospital for eight days. (I) Went through radiation for six weeks,” Turner said. “Every single morning Monday through Friday from Aug. 1 through Sept. 12, but I continued to do what I needed to do in the City of Houston.”
Mayor Turner did not disclose any further details concerning his health, but ended by saying he was grateful for Houston’s amazing medical staff.
“Let me tell you, I have been blessed,” he said before the audience applauded.
Osteosarcoma is treatable with radiation and chemotherapy.