CARACAS (Reuters) – President Hugo Chavez said he will need radiation treatment for cancer during the run-up to Venezuela’s October presidential poll, even though he insisted there was no evidence of metastasis after the removal of another tumour.

“I will live! I will overcome!” the 57-year-old socialist leader said in a televised meeting with some cabinet colleagues from Cuba, where he underwent an operation six days ago for a recurrence of the cancer that first struck him last year.

Chavez’s comments about his health came at the end of a 90-minute address to Venezuelans, shown on state TV, in which he expressed confidence in his recovery, told jokes, signed state papers and even broke into song.

He is seeking to extend his 13-year rule at a presidential election in October, but his health problems have raised doubts about his capacity to campaign for the presidency or to rule for another six-year term should he win.

YOUNG OPPONENT

His rival, 39-year-old opposition leader and Miranda state governor Henrique Capriles, is keeping quiet on Chavez’s health, simply wishing him a speedy recovery. But Capriles may benefit politically from the contrast between his own image of youth and energy and that of the ailing president.

In his comments from Havana, which were broadcast on Sunday but recorded on Saturday, Chavez varied between smiling enthusiasm and moments of introspection.

“We are all human, we are all extinguishable, more so with the life I have had, where one year seems like a hundred,” said Chavez, who stormed to power as an outsider for the 1998 election and has since then survived street protests, a brief coup, an oil strike and the opprobrium of the United States.

Chavez gave no word on when he would return to Venezuela.

He scoffed at “speculators with nothing better to do”, who had suggested his cancer had spread – or metastasized – to other organs, saying that was not true.

“They (doctors) proved the absence of any other lesions either locally, or in nearby organs, or in ones further away. Neither was there metastasis, thank God.”

A two-centimetre (0.8-inch) tumour had been successfully removed from the same pelvic area where a larger tumour was taken out in 2011, Chavez said.

“This time the recovery is much quicker,” he said. “My recovery is firm, fast and sustained, honestly,”

Radiation treatment would, however, be needed, the president said, without giving details of how long it would take. If Chavez is prevented from actively campaigning, it would be the first time in about a dozen national polls that the famously energetic campaigner has not criss-crossed the nation to woo voters.

ALLIES VOW UNITY

In a carefully-choreographed appearance to project an image of being on top of government affairs, a smiling Chavez imparted numerous instructions and signed a raft of approvals for funds to be released for government projects.

“This event we are forced to face must not slow anything. On the contrary – we should accelerate. More spiritual force, more moral strength, more ideological muscle, more revolutionary strength,” he said, as his aides applauded.

Chavez also lambasted Venezuela’s opposition as “bourgeoisie” intent on dismantling his welfare policies for the poor, spoke of an increasingly fervent Catholic faith and – as always – broke into verse at several points.

“I never used to light candles, but I do now,” he said, reading a prayer and showing an image of Cuba’s Virgin of Charity.

Chavez, a close friend of former Cuban president Fidel Castro, prefers treatment in Havana because he is guaranteed discreet treatment and a lower possibility of media leaks.

Within minutes of Chavez’s broadcast, senior allies at home pledged loyalty and unity – seeking to scotch speculation of an ugly struggle for political succession within the upper echelons of the ruling Socialist Party.

“The candidate for the Bolivarian Revolution is called Hugo Chavez Frias. The only one who guarantees stability in this country is Hugo Chavez Frias,” Congress head and former military comrade Diosdado Cabello said of his boss at a rally.

There was no immediate reaction from Capriles’ camp. He embarked this week on a “door-to-door,” nationwide tour to drum up votes for the October election.

Capriles has so far avoided being drawn into any head-to-head verbal confrontations with Chavez.

Shrugging off being called a “pig” and “fascist” by Chavez and his allies, the presidential candidate of the Democratic Unity opposition coalition, who professes Brazil’s “modern left” model as his inspiration, sticks to a political discourse about unemployment, crime, education and other social issues.

“I am going to reach every little corner of Venezuela, even the places where people say ‘no one gets there’, to talk about what progress means,” he said this weekend.

(Reporting by Andrew Cawthorne, Eyanir Chinea and Mario Naranjo; Editing by Paul Simao)

TRENTON, N.J. — Children who may have taken breast cancer treatment medication mistakenly distributed by a New Jersey pharmacy instead of prescribed fluoride pills likely won’t suffer any health problems, a pharmaceutical expert said Saturday.

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CVS Caremark officials say only a few children ingested pills for breast cancer treatment that they mistakenly received, and company investigators are still working to determine how and why the errors occurred at the pharmacy in Chatham. The pharmacy has acknowledged improperly dispensing Tamoxifen instead of chewable fluoride tablets to children in as many as 50 families between Dec. 1 and Feb. 20.

“Fortunately, it’s very unlikely that this specific drug would cause any serious or adverse effects when used for only a short periods of time,” said Daniel Hussar, a professor with the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy at the University of the Sciences.

CVS said it had spoken with or left messages for every family whose child was dispensed a 0.5 mg fluoride prescription from its Chatham location within the past 60 days. The company issued a statement Friday that said it was “deeply sorry for the mistake that occurred,” although it did not explain how the mistake happened.

Mike DeAngelis, CVS Caremark’s director of public relations, has said that “most of the families we have spoken to did not indicate that their children received any incorrect pills.” No injuries related to the mix-up have been reported.

Officials say the two pills are similar looking but have distinctively different tastes. Fluoride helps prevent tooth decay and is usually prescribed by dentists for children, while Tamoxifen is used to treat breast cancer and blocks the female hormone estrogen.

Hussar noted that while the fluoride pills may have some flavoring because they are meant to be chewed, Tamoxifen is a pill that’s intended to be swallowed, so no effort is made to make it taste good. That means a child who mistakenly took a Tamoxifen pill would likely “want to spit it out or tell his parents it tastes bad,” said Hussar, who has written and spoken extensively in the areas of new drugs, drug interactions, patient compliance, and issues facing the profession of pharmacy. He’s also served as a member of the Board of Trustees for the American Pharmacists Association and is a Past President of the Drug Information Association and the Pennsylvania Pharmacists Association.

Hussar also noted that while such prescription mix-ups are “rare occurrences,” they can be important learning tools to help ensure that similar problems don’t occur in the future.

The state attorney general’s office has begun a preliminary investigation into the matter. Its consumer affairs division on Friday ordered the Chatham pharmacy to explain the mistake and provide the names of all its employees along with all emails, telephone calls, complaints, and other information related to the mix-up.

The pharmacy must provide the information by Wednesday and company representatives must appear before division officials for questioning under oath on Friday, an order signed by division Director Thomas R. Calcagni said. He said in the order that the division wants to look into whether any laws were violated.

DeAngelis said the company is “actively investigating this matter to determine how the mistake occurred in order to take corrective actions to prevent this from happening again.”

CVS Caremark, based in Woonsocket, R.I., runs the second-largest chain of drugstores in the U.S., after Walgreen.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

CARACAS (Reuters) – President Hugo Chavez said he will need radiation treatment for cancer in the run-up to Venezuela’s October presidential poll, though he insisted there was no metastasis after the removal of another tumour.

“I will live! I will overcome!” the 57-year-old socialist leader said in a televised meeting with some cabinet colleagues from Cuba, where he underwent an operation six days ago for a recurrence of the cancer that first struck him last year.

Chavez’s comments about his health came at the end of a 90-minute address to Venezuelans, in which he expressed confidence in his recovery, told jokes, signed state papers and even broke into song.

He is seeking to extend his 13-year rule at a presidential election in October, but his health problems have raised doubts about his capacity to campaign for the presidency or to rule for another six-year term should he win.

Last year, Chavez claimed – wrongly – to be completely cured, so some Venezuelans are sceptical about his own diagnostics and rumours persist in some pro-opposition media circles that he could be dying.

YOUNG OPPONENT

His election rival, 39-year-old opposition leader and Miranda state governor Henrique Capriles, is keeping quiet on the health saga, simply wishing Chavez a speedy recovery. But Capriles may benefit politically from the contrast between his own image of youth and energy and that of the ailing president.

Underlining the volatile nature of politics in the polarized South American nation, Capriles’ camp said Chavez supporters roughed up a camera crew and shot at his followers, injuring two during a campaign stop in a poor Caracas neighbourhood on Sunday.

“Sent by the Socialist Party, they tried to stop our visit with guns. The people came out to receive us anyway,” Capriles said. “What’s the fear? There is no obstacle that can stop a people who want change.”

In Chavez’s comments from Cuba, shown on Sunday but recorded on Saturday, he varied between enthusiasm and introspection.

“We are all human, we are all extinguishable, more so with the life I have had, where one year seems like a hundred,” said Chavez. He stormed to power as an outsider for the 1998 election and has since then survived street protests, a brief coup, an oil strike and the opprobrium of the United States.

Chavez gave no word on when he would return to Venezuela.

He scoffed at “speculators with nothing better to do”, who had suggested his cancer had spread – or metastasized – to other organs. Some pro-opposition journalists have reported that.

“They (doctors) proved the absence of any other lesions either locally, or in nearby organs, or in ones further away. Neither was there metastasis, thank God.”

A two-centimetre (0.8-inch) tumour had been successfully removed from the same pelvic area where a larger, baseball-sized growth was taken out in 2011, Chavez said.

“My recovery is firm, fast and sustained, honestly,”

Radiation would, however, be needed, the president said, without giving details of how long it would take. If Chavez is prevented from actively campaigning, it would be the first time in about a dozen national polls that the famously energetic campaigner has not criss-crossed the nation to woo voters.

ALLIES VOW UNITY

In a carefully-choreographed appearance to project an image of being on top of government affairs, a smiling Chavez imparted numerous instructions and signed a raft of approvals for funds to be released for government projects.

“This event we are forced to face must not slow anything. On the contrary – we should accelerate. More spiritual force, more moral strength, more ideological muscle, more revolutionary strength,” he said, as his aides applauded.

Chavez also lambasted Venezuela’s opposition as “bourgeoisie” intent on dismantling his welfare policies for the poor, spoke of an increasingly fervent Catholic faith and – as always – broke into verse at several points.

“I never used to light candles, but I do now,” he said, reading a prayer and showing an image of Cuba’s Virgin of Charity.

“This new cross is welcome, I will carry it if necessary,” he added, alluding to Jesus’s suffering on the cross.

Chavez, a close friend of former Cuban president Fidel Castro, prefers treatment in Havana because he is guaranteed discreet treatment and a lower possibility of media leaks.

Within minutes of Chavez’s broadcast, senior allies at home pledged loyalty and unity – seeking to scotch speculation of an ugly struggle for political succession within the upper echelons of the ruling Socialist Party.

“The candidate for the Bolivarian Revolution is called Hugo Chavez Frias. The only one who guarantees stability in this country is Hugo Chavez Frias,” Congress head and former military comrade Diosdado Cabello said of his boss at a rally.

Capriles’ visit to a Caracas neighbourhood on Sunday was part of a “door-to-door” nationwide tour he began this week to drum up votes for the October election. He has so far avoided being drawn into any head-to-head verbal confrontations with Chavez.

Shrugging off being called a “pig” and “fascist” by Chavez and his allies, the presidential candidate of the Democratic Unity opposition coalition, who professes Brazil’s “modern left” model as his inspiration, sticks to a political discourse about unemployment, crime, education and other social issues.

“I am going to reach every little corner of Venezuela, even the places where people say ‘no one gets there’, to talk about what progress means,” he said this weekend.

(Additional reporting by Mario Naranjo; Editing by Paul Simao)