Pa. Lt. Gov. Knoll enters physical therapy facility

HARRISBURG - Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll said yesterday that she had left the Baltimore hospital where she had received intensive treatment for cancer, although she now was also battling a viral infection.

The infection has slowed her recovery, but her condition is good and she continues to look forward to resuming her duties, Knoll said in a statement.

"I fully intend to return to my duties as lieutenant governor, but I don't have a timetable for that," she wrote.

Knoll contracted a viral infection as a result of chemotherapy treatments that weakened her immune system, according to her chief of staff, Salvatore M. Sirabella.

Since early October, Knoll has been in the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, surrounded by family. She left the facility Tuesday, and has entered a physical therapy facility in the Washington area to deal with the infection, Sirabella said.

Knoll, 78, was diagnosed with neuroendocrine cancer in July and has undergone radiation and chemotherapy treatments. The illness caused her to miss the last two weeks of the fall voting session in the state Senate, where she presides as president.

Knoll said she had not considered resigning from the post; if she resigned, the job would fall to the Senate's president pro tempore, Joseph Scarnati (R., Jefferson).

"I have not considered stepping down," Knoll wrote. "It took more than two centuries for a woman to occupy my office, so I'm not eager to let this illness force me to vacate it."

Since falling ill, Knoll has stayed mainly at the lieutenant governor's residence at Fort Indiantown Gap, about 25 miles northeast of Harrisburg. She also chairs the state Board of Pardons.

A native of the Pittsburgh suburb of McKees Rocks, Knoll took office in January 2003, running alongside Gov. Rendell. The pair won reelection to second terms that expire in January 2011.

Before that, Knoll served two four-year terms as state treasurer. She ran for governor in 1994, but lost in the Democratic primary.