Edwards: We shouldn't be writing anybody's obituary

(CNN) -- Elizabeth Edwards, diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004, appeared on CNN's "Larry King Live" Wednesday to discuss Sen. Edward Kennedy's cancer diagnosis.

The wife of former democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards also talked about her own health and whether she will endorse a presidential candidate in 2008.

Larry King: Your reaction to the news about Senator Kennedy.

Elizabeth Edwards: Like everyone across the country, I'm extraordinarily sad to hear that Teddy is having to face this diagnosis. But I'm also incredibly confident that if anybody has the capability to fight for health care, he's fought for our health care across the country.

King: Have you had any contact with the senator or members of the family?

Edwards: My husband, John, has had a number of conversations. But John has had conversations with his wife, Vicki, to indicate our support and love for them. And, of course, we want to be able to be a sounding board for them for anything that we know.

He certainly has faced cancer before with his own son, so he knows what he's up against. I found it good to have role models of other people who are living with cancer around you as inspiration to you.

King: Earlier this month, you and Lance Armstrong testified before the senator's committee about the challenges and opportunities of fighting cancer. Was he supportive?

Edwards: Senator Kennedy and Senator Hutchison from Texas are introducing a bill, sort of a renewed war on cancer. President Nixon had this war, now Senator Kennedy and Senator Hutchison want to renew it with a real concerted and substantial effort. They've gotten a number of co-sponsors for it.

But Senator Kennedy was doing this before he knew that this was going to be his disease as well. He's doing it because it was the right thing to do. I hope that the coalition he's built will grow even stronger as people see around them someone who -- among them who is facing precisely this disease.

But he didn't do it for selfish reasons. His cancer bill was based on what the rest of us, my brothers and sisters, have been suffering with.

King: How is your own health?

Edwards: My health is good. I want to caution people. As they listen in these days to sort of grim diagnoses about what Senator Kennedy is facing. In the first place, we're hearing the general description from his doctors, but we're not hearing this same sort of grim statistics that we're hearing from other people who are talking about it.

And you heard exactly the same things from me. I am in no worse shape, if I had five years to live, and I hope I have lots more than that, a year ago, I still have five years to live, because I'm not in any different shape than I was then. Medicine has come a long way, and I don't think that we ought to be writing anybody's obituary. We ought to be thinking about how it is he's going to live with cancer as opposed to how someone dies with cancer.

It's not very cheerful hearing when everyone is talking, however nicely about you, as if you're on the edge of death. Until we hear otherwise, he is still the same strong vibrant man that he was. One of the people you had earlier on today on CNN suggested that he had a sister who had lived 13 years with this condition.

King: Your husband has endorsed Obama. Have you?

Edwards: No. I've always said that I am staying out. I don't have very much political capital. I have a small change purse here and I want to use it about the issues that I care about. I always have said I was unlikely to endorse.

King: We know you favor Hillary Clinton's health plan over Obama's and that's the most significant thing to you, isn't it? So one would think you might be in her corner.

Edwards: I want to be able to fight for a health care plan that I think makes sense for America. And sort of associating with a particular candidate maybe doesn't give me as much leverage to do that as I would have if people understood that I really cared more the message than about the messenger.

King: Would you want to be involved somehow in the next administration?

Edwards: Oh, golly, no. I'm really hopeful that I can keep the pressure on health care. I hope we get that behind us, and then I suspect I'll turn my attention to yet another thing about which I care. Just like a lot of Americans around the country, there are a lot of things that we need to fix. So a lot of places we can put our attention and energy.

King: Would you want your husband, if asked, to serve?

Edwards: That's his call about what he wants to do. I've supported him in the choices he's made. He's supported me in the choices I've made. We're sounding boards for one another, but we don't make each other's decisions.

King: Did he discuss the Obama endorsement with you before he made it?

Edwards: He did. I was a sounding board, but just to talk to him about it. I wanted him to do what he felt was right. I didn't have a dog in that hunt.

King: But you didn't dissuade him, obviously?

Edwards: No, I made no effort to dissuade him or persuade him.