‘I’m at the Top of My Game’

Sen. Arlen Specter, the five-term Republican legislator from Pennsylvania, was diagnosed with stage IV Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2005 and subsequently underwent a grueling chemotherapy regimen. But he never stopped working. In his new book, "Never Give In: Battling Cancer in the Senate," Specter chronicles with characteristic candor and extra-dry wit what it was like to battle a potentially deadly disease while still working long days on the Hill.

Specter, 78, a former prosecutor and a moderate who has rankled some of his fellow Republicans with his support of stem-cell research and his opposition to President Bill Clinton's impeachment and the recent troop influx in Iraq, had undergone two brain tumor operations and double-bypass heart surgery with multiple complications in the years before his cancer diagnosis. A tested survivor, his first public statement after learning he had cancer was simple and assured: "I'm going to beat this, too."

NEWSWEEK's Jamie Reno, himself an 11-year survivor of stage IV non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and author of "Hope Begins in the Dark", a newly published book that tells the stories of 50 survivors of Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, talked with Specter about why the senator wrote his book, how lymphoma affected him personally and politically and from where he summoned the strength to fight cancer. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: I read your book in one sitting. It hit home, and I think it will inspire a lot of people. What made you decide to write it?
Arlen Specter: I decided to write it to tell other people that they could cope with this too if they made up their mind to do so. I wanted to share my experiences as an example of what can be done. I don't want to sound self-laudatory, but I knew that I was going to go through this fight in the public eye, with the national TV exposure around the Supreme Court confirmation hearings of [Justices] John Roberts and Samuel Alito. I knew people were going to see me see deteriorate before their eyes. They'd see me grow pale and thin and bald, then hopefully see me recover. They would see me stay on the job. I thought they could take an example from it. I finished chemo July 22 [2005], and by the time we got to the Alito hearings in January [2006], they saw me coming back; they had the full picture.

You say in the book that your doctor had never seen anyone your age tolerate aggressive chemo with fewer side effects than you. You tolerated it better than I did, and I was 35. Where did you summon your strength?
How the hell do I know? [Laughs] It's just willpower, really, is how I do it. I do come from a strong family. My father was an immigrant who literally walked across Europe to get out of Russia. He fought in World War I. He was wounded in action. My father was a great success even though he never had money. He was a very determined man, a great role model.

Your book is particularly poignant when you talk about others in your life that have died of various kinds of cancer, from your former chief of staff Carey Lackman to one of your best friends, Third Circuit Judge Edward R. Becker. How did their courage inspire you?
Ed Becker was just a terrific guy. He worked with me on asbestos reform as a senior judge. He put in long hours with me on that. And I was with Carey the night before she died, and as I say in the book, she smiled and told me that night that she had a good run. She was very brave. It's inspirational to see someone who is dying smile.