Republican Senator Jim King announced Saturday he was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
A spokesperson for King says the longtime Florida lawmaker and former state Senate president realizes the complexity of treating the disease but has every intention of continuing to serve his Jacksonville constituency.
King was a member of the Florida House from 1986 to 1999 and has been in the Senate since. He served as Senate president from 2002 to 2004.
While King has not shared his prognosis, the outcome of pancreatic cancer has poor survival rates with just 5 percent of patients living five years after diagnosis. However, survival rates are drastically better when the cancer is caught in early stages, followed immediately by removal surgery.
