University of Mississippi Chancellor Dan Jones has been diagnosed with lymphoma after several days of tests this past week, according to a news release from the university.

Chemotherapy began Thursday and will continue intermittently for several months, the release said.

Jones plans to work from an office at the Medical Center between treatments, taking personal leave as needed for medical care. Provost Morris Stocks will serve as the senior university executive when Jones is unavailable.

Jones, 65, a Morton native who grew up in Vicksburg, is the university’s 16th chancellor and has led the university since July 2009. The 1967 Warren Central High School graduate has guided Ole Miss during a period of “tremendous growth in the university’s enrollment and national recognition,” the release said.

Previously, Jones led the University of Mississippi Medical Center for six years as vice-chancellor for health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine. He also was the school’s Herbert G. Langford Professor of Medicine. He served as national president of the American Heart Association and is a member of the AHA Council for High Blood Pressure Research.