Jackson Free Press

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Doctors have found a new tumor in U.S. Rep. Alan Nunnelee and told him no further medical treatment is possible, a spokesman for the Mississippi congressman said Friday.

"After seven months of bravely fighting brain cancer and a stroke, Congressman Alan Nunnelee was informed last Friday that a new tumor has developed and no further medical treatment is possible. On Monday of this week, Alan came home and is resting comfortably with family," Morgan Baldwin, a campaign consultant who has worked for Nunnelee, said in a prepared statement Friday.

"The family continues to ask for your prayers and requests privacy out of respect for Congressman Nunnelee," Baldwin said.

Nunnelee, who's now 56, had a stroke in June while surgeons were removing a brain tumor.

In December, Nunnelee was hospitalized in his hometown of Tupelo for treatment of a bleeding problem in his left leg. He was too ill to go to Washington in early January to be sworn in for his third two-year term, so House leaders let a federal judge administer his oath of office while he was still hospitalized at North Mississippi Medical Center.

In 2010, Nunnelee unseated Democrat Travis Childers, who had held north Mississippi's 1st District seat since mid-2008. Like many other Republican candidates that year, Nunnelee painted the Democratic incumbent as being beholden to then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Before he was elected to Congress, Nunnelee served 15 years in the Mississippi Senate and became one of the top state budget writers as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.