State Sen. Kay Patterson is undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer, but says he hasn't missed a day in the Senate because of his fight, WLTX-TV reported Thursday night on its Web site.

Patterson, D-Richland, was diagnosed with cancer in January, WLTX said. He had surgery in April to remove his left breast, and he said his doctor told him surgeons got all the cancer.

His energy is drained and his hair is falling out, but it hasn't slowed him.

"I've been here every day for 30 years," Patterson, 72, said. "My constituents have sent me back down here for 30 years without opposition."

Male breast cancer remains rare.

According to the National Cancer Institute, it accounts for less than 1 percent of all breast cancer cases. About 1,600 men are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, and the disease will kill about 25 percent of them, according to the institute.

Patterson became a representative in 1975 and a senator in 1985.