BOSTON (AP) – Boston Red Sox rookie left-hander Jon Lester has a treatable form of lymphoma and will start treatment in the coming week, the team announced Friday.

Enlarged lymph nodes were identified when Lester, 22, was tested to determine the cause of back pain that sent him to the disabled list last Monday. The club said Friday he has a treatable form of anaplastic large cell lymphoma.

Manager Terry Francona visited Lester on Thursday morning and several players commented later that day, before the diagnosis was announced.

Pitcher Curt Schilling referred to the melanoma his wife dealt with several years ago.

“Having been in a situation where cancer was an operative word, it’s an incredibly scary thing,” Schilling said Thursday. “You’re talking about a kid at the beginning of his life.”

Lester is 7-2 with a 4.76 ERA and 60 strikeouts in 81 1-3 innings.

He was called up to the majors for the first time on June 10, when he made his first start in a 7-4 loss to Texas.

He wasn’t involved in the decision. He improved to 5-0 with a 1-0 victory at Kansas City on July 18.

On Thursday, reliever Mike Timlin said baseball pales in significance to Lester’s health.

“It’s his life. It’s not him not being able to get out of the sixth inning,” Timlin said. “He’s 22. That’s a long future not to have if you come up with an illness that you can’t get rid of so we are praying for him.”

“Winning baseball games, yeah, that’s great. Losing baseball games, no, that’s not very much fun. But dealing with horrible things in human life, that’s a whole lot worse than losing.”

Second baseman Mark Loretta said he had melanoma about 21/2 years ago and was hopeful Thursday that tests would show Lester was healthy.

“This is a scare. It’s bigger than a hamstring pull or anything like that, obviously,” Loretta said. “So, hopefully, it’s just precautionary and it will come back without a problem but it’s something you need to check out and take very seriously.”

Lester, a native of Tacoma, Wash., was Boston’s first pick in the 2002 draft. In his first four minor-league seasons, he had a 24-22 record with a 3.38 ERA in 73 games, 69 of them starts, and was considered one of the Red Sox top prospects.

Last year with Double-A Portland he had an 11-6 record and led the Eastern League with a 2.61 ERA.

This season with Triple-A Pawtucket, he was 3-4 with a 2.70 ERA in 11 starts before being promoted.

AP-ES-09-01-06 1846EDT