Edwards to continue campaign despite wife’s cancer

US presidential hopeful John Edwards said yesterday his wife’s cancer has returned, but said he will continue his campaign for the Democratic nomination.

“The campaign goes on. The campaign goes on strongly,” Edwards told reporters, his wife by his side.

Edwards, aged 53, cancelled a Tuesday evening house party in Iowa to go with his wife to a doctor’s appointment, which his campaign described as a follow-up to a routine test she had Monday.

Elizabeth Edwards, aged 57, was first diagnosed with cancer in the final weeks of the 2004 campaign.

The day after Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry and Edwards, his running mate, conceded the election to George W Bush, Edwards announced that his wife had invasive ductal cancer, the most common type of breast cancer, and would undergo treatment.

Ms Edwards underwent several months of radiation and chemotherapy for the lump in her breast. Her husband’s campaign has said she had recovered from the illness.

“I don’t look sickly, I don’t feel sickly. I am as ready as any person can be for that,” she said at the news conference.

John Edwards said a biopsy of her rib had showed that the cancer had returned.