WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd, a leading force for U.S. healthcare reform, said on Friday he has prostate cancer but still plans to run for re-election next year.

"I'll be a little leaner and a little meaner but I'm running," Dodd, 65, told a televised news conference in his home state of Connecticut.

Dodd said he planned to undergo surgery during the August Senate recess, but that he was confident the cancer had been caught at an early stage and that he would recover fully.

Early stage prostate cancer typically is easily treated and cured, according to medical experts. Dodd had the choice of surgery, radiation or a type of radiation therapy that uses radioactive seeds planted near the prostate.

His choice of surgery will require what he called a brief period of recuperation.

"He is expected to return to full activity within a few weeks of the surgery," Howard Scher, head of the genitourinary service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, said in a statement.

Dodd, who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for president in 2008, chairs the powerful Senate Banking Committee.

Recently he has taken charge of the healthcare debate in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, filling in for Senator Edward Kennedy, who has was diagnosed with brain cancer last year.

President Barack Obama has made healthcare reform his top priority but Democrats in Congress have battled to sell the plan to both Republicans and to fiscal conservatives in their own party.

Dodd said he received his cancer diagnosis six weeks ago but had not revealed it during early stages of the Senate's debate on healthcare reform. "This is not about me," he said.

Dodd is now serving in his fifth six-year term in the Senate. Recent polls have shown he could face a tough re-election next year, following his central role a year ago in crafting a $700 billion Wall Street bailout that is unpopular among voters.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan and Maggie Fox; Editing by Bill Trott)