"My illness has nothing to do with succession planning," Dimon told reporters on a conference call discussing the bank's second-quarter earnings, adding that most of the internal candidates the board has considered are among the best in the banking industry. "I honestly would tell you that almost any one of them could run a major financial company," he said.

The most obvious successors include Daniel Pinto, who runs JPMorgan's corporate and investment banking division, Matthew Zames, the bank's chief operating officer, and Gordon Smith, JPMorgan's head of consumer banking, according to a person familiar with the matter.

In his first public remarks about his diagnosis, Dimon reiterated that his cancer is curable, that there was no evidence of it spreading to anywhere else on his body and that he planned to be involved in managing the bank's affairs while receiving chemotherapy and radiation treatment.

His treatment, which is expected to begin soon, will last around eight weeks. Dimon said doctors told him to take a few weeks of rest following the treatment and that he expects to back off from his usual pace but stay in close touch with bank executives.

"I'm hoping that the next time I talk about this at all... I will tell you it's complete and the prognosis is still very good," he said on the media call.

(Reporting by Peter Rudegeair; editing by Andrew Hay)