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Another bad reaction to chemotherapy treatment for his cancer has hospitalized Attorney General Mark Shurtleff for six consecutive days, and staffers are hopeful — but uncertain — he'll be released Friday.

The 53-year-old hasn't been able to keep food down, and spokesman Paul Murphy said doctors have "had to give him the same treatment they would a starving child with dysentery."

Shurtleff was admitted Saturday after feeling ill, and Murphy said he is "weak and frustrated because he loves his job and wants to be involved with everything."

Shurtleff began chemotherapy for the Stage 3 colon cancer in mid-January, and he has been hospitalized several times since then — including once when he suffered heart problems with the first drug method.

The drug, fluorouracil, is used to slow or stop cancer cell growth and is commonly referred to as 5FU. The first time Shurtleff got it, it was administered through a small pump he wore. However, that resulted in the heart problem and doctors had to try a different delivery method.

Murphy said this is now the third attempt at administering the chemotherapy.

The hospitalization hasn't kept Shurtleff from doing work — though he was forced to cancel a meeting with Gov. Gary Herbert Thursday to discuss an upcoming trip to Washington regarding Utah's guest worker immigration law, HB116.

Herbert's office issued a statement Thursday, saying, "We wish him well and a speedy recovery because the state needs him."

Shurtleff has been active on Twitter, however. At one point on May 9, he issued a tweet that said, "CANCER SUCKS" and told people he'd been in the hospital for three days. He also managed to create a bit of a furor when he tweeted his desire to not retry the case of Debra Brown after his office earlier in the day said they would.

Brown was exonerated Monday for a murder for which she had spent 17 years in prison.

As a point man on immigration reform, Shurtleff also issued a tweet saying, "NP!" (no problem) in reaction to the state having 14 days to respond to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Immigration Law Center seeking a preliminary injunction to block Rep. Stephen Sandstrom's immigration enforcement law, HB497.

But the tweets stopped May 11, with the last one about his participation in a trial regarding the Bowl Championship Series. That same day, he also issued another "CANCER SUCKS" update and said there were "complications of chemo."

Murphy said Shurtleff's wife, M'Liss, has confiscated his cellphone and that the experience has been tough on the family.

"They're praying. They're worried," Murphy said. "They are doing the best they can to keep everything going for the family while he's in the hospital."

When Shurtleff was diagnosed with cancer, doctors said there would be a 59 percent chance that he would survive five years. But with the chemotherapy, his odds increase by another 17 percent.

dmontero@sltrib.com Twitter: @davemontero