Sandoval was scheduled for another round of chemotherapy Monday at the University of Colorado Hospital, but opted against it after a long talk with his wife, Paula Sandoval.

"After this weekend, I became so lethargic I just couldn't take it anymore," he said Monday, adding he didn't think more chemotherapy would make much of an impact.

"I have no idea how much time I have. I really don't know. I was doing good until about a month ago, then all of a sudden it went downhill. I quit eating. I couldn't eat. I'm down to 113 pounds."

Sandoval, a former state lawmaker and member of the Denver school board, has been a fixture in in Colorado politics for five decades.

Gov. John Hickenlooper stopped by the other day to see how he was doing.

And after a recent snowstorm, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, back in Denver for a weekend, shoveled his sidewalk. Salazar' s political career — which included stints as Colorado's attorney general and a U.S. senator — was mapped out on a napkin in the back room of Sandoval's tamale shop.

State Sen. Lucia Guzman, D-Denver, struggled to hold back tears Monday when she talked about Sandoval's decision.

The Denver Post last year wrote about Sandoval, the godfather of Colorado politics, and the shockwaves when people learned he had the kind of cancer that sees few survivors.

Sandoval, who was diagnosed last February, participated in a study where the goal was to combine three chemo medications to see if they could shrink the cancerous tumor on his pancreas and ultimately, prevent the disease from spreading. The tumor shrunk to half its size, then started growing again. Sandoval developed a lesion on his liver, and the medications from a second study didn't work.

"The doctor had said, 'It's up to you to say when you've had enough,' " Paula Sandoval said. "I have to respect Paul's decision. He's been through so much. He said, 'I just can't do it anymore.' He feels very peaceful about the decision."

For her, it's a double whammy. Her mother, Margaret Ramirez, was diagnosed three weeks ago with stage IV throat cancer is going into hospice.

Lynn Bartels: 303-954-5327 or lbartels@denverpost.com