"It's the idea of you sit around and think, 'Oh, I'm sick,' and concentrate on the disease. Or do you sit around and think, 'OK, how do I fight this?'" he said.

"Medical technology is moving so quickly that, you know, if you buy yourself two or three years, you buy yourself 10 years," said Snow, who spoke in an NBC interview that was taped Friday and broadcast Tuesday on "NBC Nightly News."

Snow, 51, has been undergoing chemotherapy after doctors discovered a recurrence of his cancer in March.

He said the treatment has shown some success so far in "driving it into remission and even going further and shrinking the larger tumors."

Snow, who has lost weight and a lot of his hair, said President Bush often checks on his health. Snow's kids are scared too, "probably more than they let on."

But one of his greatest feelings, Snow said, was returning to work in April. He credits that with giving him much of his hope.

"There's a certain sense where that's a kind of home too," he said.

Cancer a lift to spokesman's faith

White House's Snow says blessing came in unexpected form

The Washington Post August 7, 2007

WASHINGTON - White House press secretary Tony Snow, who discovered in March that his cancer had recurred, said the life-threatening setback is also life-affirming. Snow writes about his experience in the July issue of Christianity Today.

"Blessings arrive in unexpected packages -- in my case, cancer," he writes. Snow, 51, thought he had beaten colon cancer two years ago, only to find out it returned and spread to his liver. But rather than causing him to wallow in self-pity, Snow said, the illness has deepened his faith and made him more purposeful about life.

"We don't know how the narrative of our lives will end, but we get to choose how to use the interval between now and the moment we meet our Creator" face to face, Snow writes.

Snow has undergone aggressive chemotherapy and has said tests show the treatments have been effective. The battle has left his hair thinner and whiter, and at times appears to have sapped his strength. Still, Snow continues to vigorously articulate the president's positions.

"We want lives of simple, predictable ease -- smooth, even trails as far as the eye can see -- but God likes to go off-road," Snow writes. "He provokes us with twists and turns. He places us in predicaments that seem to defy our endurance and comprehension -- and yet don't. By his love and grace, we persevere."