
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 12, 1995                   TAG: 9507120056
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                 LENGTH: Medium

PROSECUTOR TO GET RADIATION TO SHRINK REST OF BENIGN TUMOR

Phil Keith, Montgomery County's commonwealth's attorney, said Tuesday he has started a seven-week course of radiation therapy to shrink the remaining benign tumor in his brain.

Keith said he was announcing the step before people started speculating about his health.

"I do want people to understand that I am not on death's doorstep," Keith said. "It will make me look funny. They tell me it will cause my hair to fall out. It will make me look like Yul Brynner, I guess."

Keith, a Democrat, is seeking re-election this fall against Republican Joey Showalter. Keith was appointed county prosecutor in 1989 and was elected in 1991.

The 44-year-old Riner native has been coping with the benign brain tumor since 1983. Keith and his neurosurgeon, Dr. David Kelley of Winston-Salem, N.C., waited nine years before a first operation to remove the tumor in 1992. A follow-up operation in March 1994 took out more of the growth.

"Each time, part of it had to be left," Keith said.

He and his doctor believe the remaining growth is affecting Keith's ability to use the left side of his body.

"This is just the next phase in this 13-year odyssey," Keith said.

Since last month he's been using a wheelchair to go to and from his office and at public appearances, including the county Democratic mass meeting, where he defeated a nomination challenge from County Attorney Roy Thorpe. But Keith said he is beginning to be able to walk more often now.

"It's discouraging of course," Keith said of the new course of treatment, his first experience with radiation therapy. "Hopefully it should do what the doctor said it should do, which is improve my condition."

Keith has scheduled the 35 sessions, which began Monday, for late afternoons at Roanoke Memorial Hospital so he can still have most of the day to work in his office. He plans no break in his routine.

"It's seven weeks of treatment, so the treatment's already started and will be over by Labor Day," Keith said. "I plan to be out campaigning certainly by September."

Staff Writer Kathy Loan contributed information for this story.

by CNB