Sen. Todd Weiler to undergo ‘aggressive’ cancer treatment
Mar 11, 2024, 11:10 AM | Updated: Mar 12, 2024, 11:21 am
FILE - Republican state Sen. Todd Weiler looks on as he sits on the Senate floor on March 2, 2023, at the Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City. A law requiring porn sites verify the age of their users takes effect on Wednesday, May 3, 2023, in Utah, a deeply conservative state where politics and culture are dominated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Its implementation comes days after Pornhub blocked its site and videos in Utah in protest. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
(AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah state senator, Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, is beginning radiation treatments this week to treat a “quite aggressive” form of prostate cancer.
Weiler told KSL TV Monday he thought he was “in the clear” after his prostate was removed in December 2020, but recent tests have shown the cancer isn’t gone.
“I don’t have a prostate,” Sen. Todd Weiler joked, “but I still have prostate cancer.”
Weiler said after a recent DNA test, doctors determined there were remaining cancer cells that were “quite aggressive.” Accordingly, he said he will begin radiation treatment on Thursday, lasting an hour a day for 38 days.
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Despite doctors’ concern, Weiler said he’s optimistic the treatment will be successful, and he called this a “short-term setback.”
“I should be fine. This is mostly preventative,” Weiler said. “They don’t think it’s started spreading yet.”
However, he added, “It’s likely to spread if it goes untreated.”
Weiler, an attorney who has served in the Utah Senate since 2012, said he does not plan to resign his seat and will continue campaigning for re-election in Senate District 8 where he faces two Republican challengers, Ronald Mortensen, and Brady Tracy. The Republican Party state convention takes place next month.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
