East Bay congressman speaks to ABC7 News about cancer diagnosis

CONCORD, Calif. (KGO) -- Bay Area congressman Mark DeSaulnier spoke with ABC7 News Thursday about his cancer diagnosis after he announced he has leukemia.

"I'm great. So I've gone through the initial chemotherapy. The chemo is out of me. The cancer is no longer in my blood system. I'm up to my old level of energy, which I didn't have for some period of time before I had the diagnosis because I didn't know I had cancer streaming through by body," he said.

The 64-year-old Democrat represents parts of Contra Costa County and says he's responding well to treatment and plans to run for another term.

DeSaulnier says he'll fight for more funding to battle cancer, and improve accessibility of costly drugs to those who can't afford them.