Columnist Charles Krauthammer Says He Has Just Weeks To Live

Conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer says he is in the final stages of cancer. He informed readers on Friday in a short note on The Washington Post website. "I leave this life with no regrets," Krauthammer wrote in his farewell message.

Krauthammer has been a columnist with The Washington Post since 1984, and is also a longtime commentator on Fox News. Last August Krauthammer went on leave from both jobs after doctors found a cancerous tumor in his abdomen.

Krauthammer says a surgery to remove the tumor resulted in many secondary complications. Until just a few weeks ago, however, he thought he had successfully fought the cancer. Last month Fox News anchor Bret Baier delivered a message from Krauthammer: "The worst now appears to be behind me."

In his The Washington Post message, Krauthammer said the cancer had returned, "I have been uncharacteristically silent these past ten months. I had thought that silence would soon be coming to an end, but I'm afraid I must tell you now that fate has decided on a different course for me ... This is the final verdict. My fight is over."

Krauthammer had successfully battled other life challenges – in his first year of Harvard Medical School, a swimming pool accident left him a quadriplegic. He went on to graduate in 1975, and serve as chief psychiatry resident at Mass General Hospital. In 1978 Krauthammer began directing planning psychiatric research in the Carter administration, where he also worked as a speechwriter for Vice President Walter Mondale. While in Washington he began writing for The New Republic, Time magazine, and The Washington Post.