WASHINGTON — When Tony Snow was asked to become President Bush's press secretary last year, he didn't agree until his doctors told him there were no signs of the colon cancer for which he had been treated in 2005.
Based on that assurance, he accepted one of the most demanding jobs in Washington.
But early Tuesday morning, Snow told Bush that the cancer had returned -- and had spread to his liver and elsewhere.
The report of the recurrence sent ripples of sadness through the White House staff, which has come to count on the former Fox News television and radio commentator to convey the administration's views to an increasingly skeptical public and, as the personable face of the White House, to defend it with charm and style against daily challenges from the Democratic Congress.
"He is not going to let this whip him, and he's upbeat," Bush told a small group of reporters in the White House Rose Garden on Tuesday morning. "My message to Tony is: Stay strong; a lot of people love you and care for you and will pray for you."
The disclosure of Snow's diagnosis followed last Thursday's announcement that Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of Democratic presidential contender John Edwards, was about to begin treatment for a recurrence of breast cancer, even as she and her husband continued to campaign.
Snow's response that day was emotional: "As somebody who has been through this, Elizabeth Edwards is setting a powerful example for a lot of people, and a good and positive one," he said.
The next day, he announced that he was undergoing surgery Monday for a small growth in his abdomen that doctors had been tracking for several months. All tests were negative for cancer, he told reporters, but he was having it removed "out of an aggressive sense of caution."
On Tuesday morning, Snow's deputy, Dana Perino, paused to regain her composure and dabbed at her eyes as she revealed her boss' condition moments after speaking with him.
Later, she told reporters at a televised news briefing that "the growth was cancerous and there has been some metastases, including to the liver." White House officials have not said where Snow, who lost his mother to colon cancer when he was 17, is being treated.
The growth that was removed is in the same area as the previous cancer, Perino said. The metastasis, or spread, to the liver is on the organ but has not invaded it, she added. She said she did not know where else cancer was found.
