Elizabeth Edwards's Cancer Has Spread

While the Edwards family put on a brave face last week and noted that their doctors believed that they caught the bone cancer in its early stages, it appears that the cancer had already spread from one of her ribs to her hips when it was discovered in the course of treating a cracked rib.

Mrs. Edwards and her husband said they would continue campaigning.

The interview, on “60 Minutes” on CBS, appeared three days after Mr. Edwards announced that his wife’s cancer, first diagnosed late in his 2004 campaign for the White House, had come back in an incurable form that had spread to her ribs.

When asked if the cancer had spread to any other part of her body, Mrs. Edwards said, “There are a couple of hot spots, on the bone scan, in my right hip, for example.” She did not mention any other areas having been affected.

Sitting with her husband, Mrs. Edwards, 57, said she wondered if treating her hip with radiation would cause it to weaken and be more susceptible to breaking. But she said the doctors she had consulted had told her that “it was too small an area for that to be a risk.”

Mrs. Edwards’s health has been a prime topic of discussion for the past few days among Americans debating whether Mr. Edwards, who is seeking the Democratic nomination, should continue to pursue his political ambitions. Some critics have suggested that he might try to exploit her condition to win votes.

Bone cancer is an extremely aggressive and she's going to need all of her strength to cope with the treatment and the debilitating effects. I admire her stoicism in the face of such a prognosis, though I wonder whether the stress of the campaign will exascerbate her condition or that the campaign will give her something else to focus on to in order to get through this difficult ordeal. I'm hoping that it is the latter, though the former is certainly possible.