Turner divulges cancer diagnosis: 'A little bit more than a root canal'

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner revealed that he was diagnosed with cancer over the summer on Wednesday, per reports from Houston-based media outlets.

Houston ABC affiliate KTRK reported that the 68-year-old Turner talked about the diagnosis during his State of the City address. 

The mayor told KTRK that he was battling osteosarcoma, a form of bone cancer doctors discovered in his jaw.

Houston CBS affiliate KHOU reported that he learned he had cancer during a visit to the dentist for a root canal.

"Doctors come and say, ‘Ummm a little bit more than a root canal,'" Turner recalled, per KHOU.

According to the station, the medical situation forced him to cancel a trade mission to France so he could undergo further testing.

Instead of traveling across the Atlantic, KHOU reported, Turner spent eight days at the hospital, where he was operated on for nine hours.

"Went through radiation for six weeks, every single morning, Monday through Friday, 7:30; Aug. 1-Sept. 12,” the mayor said, according to the station. “Back at city council that day.”

KTRK reported that Turner was 13 years old when his father died from cancer.

According to KTRK, the mayor, who’s in his final term, didn’t say whether his cancer battle is over, he expressed hope.

“I have been blessed,” Turner told the station repeatedly.

The Mayo Clinic said on its website that osteosarcoma can start at any bone and commonly occurs in teenagers and young adults, with younger children and older adults being rare cases.