Maryland governor says 95% of his cancer gone

MARYLAND/GOVERNOR WASHINGTON - Maryland Governor Larry Hogan said on Tuesday that 95 percent of his cancer was gone after eight weeks of intensive medical treatment, the Washington Post reported.

Hogan, a Republican, stunned the state in June when he told a hastily called news conference that he suffered from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and had dozens of tumors in his abdomen, neck and groin.

After undergoing treatment, "I aced my test," Hogan told the Post in his first face-to-face interview about his illness since the diagnosis.

"Ninety-five percent is gone, disappeared, dead. I still have some remnants of the tumors, but it's dead," said the governor, who the Post said was sporting a wide grin and a bald head.

Hogan, a commercial real estate broker who had never held elective office, was elected in an upset in November after campaigning on tax-cutting platform.

He came to national attention in April when he sent the National Guard into Baltimore after rioting sparked by the death of a black man from an injury suffered in police custody.

His illness triggered an outpouring of sympathy around Maryland, and a photo of a bald, beaming Hogan striking a pose while wearing sunglasses became an Internet hit. He continued to work around his chemotherapy appointments.

Hogan said his progress had surprised his medical team. "They were shocked at the results," Hogan said.

"They were saying, 'We could not possibly have hoped for a better scan than that.'"