Rep. Lantos diagnosed with cancer, but says he'll finish term

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WASHINGTON -- California Rep. Tom Lantos' decision to retire at the end of this year as he battles cancer of the esophagus will bring an end to an unlikely political career that took him from a daring escape from Nazi-controlled Hungary to an economics professorship at San Francisco State University to the chairmanship of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.It also marks the start of a political race for a rare open seat in the Bay Area's congressional delegation. Former state Sen. Jackie Speier and state Sen. Leland Yee, who both represented the area in Sacramento, are already eyeing the race.Lantos, who turns 80 on Feb. 1, announced his retirement in a statement Wednesday. He received the diagnosis from his doctors the week before Congress recessed in December, but spent two weeks consulting with doctors, his wife, Annette, and other family members before making his decision, aides said."In view of this development and the treatment it will require, I will not seek re-election," he explained.But the Democrat made clear he plans to finish his 14th term in Congress even as he begins treatment, which is expected to include radiation and chemotherapy.Despite the diagnosis, Lantos said he felt fortunate."It is only in the United States that a penniless survivor of the Holocaust and a fighter in the anti-Nazi underground could have received an education, raised a family and had the privilege of serving the last three decades of his life as a member of Congress," he said. "I will never be able to express fully my profoundly felt gratitude to this great country."Lantos' announcement stunned colleagues, most of whom had not heard he was sick.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement that she learned of his illness with "great personal sadness and deep appreciation for his outstanding leadership."The first Holocaust survivor ever elected to Congress, he was praised by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., for being "at the forefront of virtually every human-rights battle over nearly three decades in Congress."Lantos' office gave few details about his illness. Doctors detected something was amiss during a routine test in December, aides said. A follow-up biopsy revealed that he had cancer of the esophagus, the tube that carries food and liquids between the mouth and stomach.Dr. Alan Venook, a professor of medicine at the University of California-San Francisco and a specialist in gastrointestinal cancers, said Lantos' prospects depend on how much the cancer has advanced.Esophageal cancer is a rare and often-fatal illness, but Venook said the treatments are improving and could allow Lantos to serve out his term.Lantos never smoked, a habit linked to esophageal tumors. Until recently, he was swimming every day and his aides joke about the 79-year-old running circles around his much younger staff.Retirement was a painful choice for Lantos, who had become chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee last January after years of serving as ranking member under the Republican majority.Born in Budapest in 1928 to middle-class Jewish parents, Lantos was just 16 when the Nazis rolled into the Hungarian capital in 1944. He twice escaped from a labor camp and eventually made it to a safe house run by Swedish humanitarian Raoul Wallenberg. He credits his blue eyes and blond hair with helping him avoid detection.Lantos and his wife, Annette, his childhood sweetheart, survived, but they lost almost their entire families in the death camps. Their experiences in the Holocaust would shape his priorities in Congress. In 1983, he founded the Congressional Human Rights Caucus. Annette Lantos, who works as volunteer in his Washington office, has directed the caucus ever since.After settling in San Mateo County, Lantos spent 30 years teaching economics at San Francisco State, served as a foreign-affairs analyst on public television and won a seat on the Millbrae school board. When other Democrats passed on the chance to challenge GOP incumbent Rep. Bill Royer in 1980, Lantos jumped in and narrowly won.In his 27 years in Congress, Lantos has been praised for helping to preserve open space in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, among other efforts benefiting the Bay Area. An animal lover, he pushed through a bill last year requiring authorities to make plans to evacuate pets during disasters such as Hurricane Katrina.But critics on the left have questioned his strong support for Israel and the lead role he played in Congress in passing the 2002 measure giving President Bush the authorization to go to war in Iraq. He has since become a sharp critic of Bush's Iraq policy.(E-mail Zachary Coile at zcoile(at)sfchronicle.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)