Despite his cancer diagnosis, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-San Antonio) said on Monday that he has a good prognosis, per a report from Austin NBC affiliate KXAN.
The station reported that doctors performed what the 48-year-old Castro described as a successful procedure to remove gastrointestinal neuroendocrine tumors.
“Last summer, doctors discovered these small, slow-growing and mostly asymptomatic tumors after a series of tests,” the legislator said in a tweet. “I expect to be home recovering in Texas for several weeks before returning to Washington to continue my work for the people of my hometown, San Antonio.”
A Texas Tribune article that was run by Houston ABC affiliate KTRK reported that Castro had the surgery at MD Anderson Cancer Center.
“Thank you to the doctors, nurses and medical staff at MD Anderson Cancer Center and the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio for their care and treatment and thank you to my family for their love and support,” he said in a statement issued by his congressional office, The Texas Tribune reported.
According to the website Roll Call, physicians diagnosed Castro with the rare cancer while he received medical attention after a car accident in Spain last July.
The legislator, who has represented Texas’ second-largest city and surrounding areas in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2013, was a passenger in a vehicle that struck a wild boar.
Citing San Antonio’s lone major publication, Roll Call reported that a precautionary MRI revealed an irregularity, a tumor that started in his small intestine and spread to his liver.
Castro is the twin sibling of former San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, who served as the 16th U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 2014 to 2017.
He chaired Julian Castro’s presidential campaign nearly three years ago, Roll Call reported.
Julian Castro also took to Twitter to express gratitude to the healthcare professionals who treated his brother, joking that he can’t wait to lose another tennis match to him.