Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc says cancer is in remission

MONCTON, N.B. – Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc, who was hit with a cancer diagnosis late last year, says he has a clean bill of health after undergoing treatment for his leukemia.

He made the announcement on social media Thursday with a joint statement with his oncologist, Dr. Nicholas Finn, who says LeBlanc’s leukemia is in “complete remission.”

LeBlanc revealed in December he had chronic lymphocytic leukemia — one of the most common forms of leukemia in adults — and was about to undergo treatment.

He said the diagnosis came in April 2017, but only decided to go public months later because he was about to start chemo immunotherapy in Moncton, N.B. — a small place where showing up for outpatient treatment at a hospital two mornings a month wouldn’t go unnoticed.

LeBlanc, who was fisheries minister at the time, said his scheduled treatments at Dr. Georges-L. Dumont University Hospital Centre in Moncton would have minimal impact on his work.

In Thursday’s statement, Finn says LeBlanc’s response to the treatment was “the optimal outcome we had hoped for,” but noted the politician will have to be monitored for many years.