Washington ? White House press secretary Tony Snow has often said that he “felt that cancer was stalking me.” Tuesday it caught up with him again.

President Bush, left, jokes with members of the media as he stands with White House Press Secretary Tony Snow in this Aug. 2, 2006, photo. The White House announced Tuesday that Snow has suffered a recurrence of cancer.

Snow, 51, who beat colon cancer two years ago, disclosed that it has returned and spread to his liver, delivering a brutal blow to his family and friends and to a White House already reeling under a relentless barrage of bad news.

The development shattered some of his colleagues. Snow’s deputy, Dana Perino, broke into tears as she announced the news at an off-camera briefing Tuesday morning. President Bush later told reporters in the Rose Garden that he was praying for his spokesman. Telephones at the White House rang all day with messages of sympathy.

“It was a jolt for everybody, to say the least,” said Dan Bartlett, counselor to the president. Another aide described it as “a thunderclap” and said “I’m just sick to my stomach.” But Snow vowed to attack the cancer aggressively and return to work. “It may take a while, but I’ll be back,” he told a colleague who recounted the exchange.

Beyond the personal misfortune, the discovery could hardly have come at a worse moment for the administration. It was the latest demoralizing event after weeks that included the conviction of a former White House aide, a guilty plea by another former administration official, the resignations of several other officials and a steady drumbeat of revelations that have jeopardized the attorney general’s job.

And at a time of siege, with Bush wrestling Congress for control of the war in Iraq, Snow’s absence while he undergoes treatment will deprive the president of his most prominent public advocate. In his year at the White House lectern, Snow has become the public face of the Bush presidency, a forceful yet upbeat defender of an embattled administration whose verbal jousting and television celebrity made him a popular figure in Republican circles, even when his boss was not.

For now, Bartlett said Perino will fill in while Snow decides on a course of treatment.

“He’s been a good messenger for the president,” said Charles Black, a GOP lobbyist who advises the White House. “But that said, there are other good people around who could be asked to fill in. And certainly as good a job as Tony has done, it hasn’t made all the problems go away.”