Ruth Bader Ginsburg completes radiation therapy for a pancreatic tumor



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Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been on a three-week course of radiation therapy to treat a pancreatic tumor, according to a statement released Friday by the Supreme Court. According to the statement, the tumor has been treated "definitely", and there is no evidence of disease elsewhere in the body.

The court said the doctors had detected this abnormality during a routine blood test performed in early July, and then a biopsy late July at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York had confirmed "a localized malignancy." ". Part of his treatment included the insertion of a stent of the bile ducts.

"The court tolerated the treatment well, canceled its annual summer visit to Santa Fe, but also maintained an active schedule," the statement said. "No other treatment is needed at the moment."

Dr. David Agus, an oncologist, medical contributor to CBS News, said that radiation therapy "is not a standard treatment for pancreatic tumors", but that it can be used "in a very person. elderly and can not tolerate aggressive surgery or chemotherapy. "

After the treatment targeting the lesion, Agus said: "It is hoped that it will not happen again, although there is a significant chance at one time or another."

Agus also said that the statement that the tumor had been treated "definitely" meant that she had been treated "in the hope of being able to cure her". He added, "The problem with pancreatic tumors is most of the time that there are cells elsewhere that we can not visualize, so it is very difficult to heal them, even if you target them."

Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Supreme Court Judge

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Ginsburg, 86, has a history of health problems. In December, Ginsburg had an operation in a hospital in New York City to take two cancerous nodules from his lung. She was also treated last year for rib fractures she suffered during a fall on November 7th.

Ginsburg has already survived cancer: colon cancer in 1999 and pancreatic cancer 10 years later.

Her pancreatic cancer was detected early and was successfully removed in 2009. She was treated for colon cancer in 1999 with a combination of chemotherapy, radiation and surgery.

Ginsburg is perhaps the largest of the four Liberal justices at the Supreme Court. In an interview with NPR published last month, she tried to allay people's concerns about her health.

In the interview, she responded to concerns about his health and took a dig at a comment by the late Republican Senator of Kentucky, Jim Bunning.

"There was a senator – I think it was after pancreatic cancer – who happily announced that I would be dead in six months," she said. "This senator – whose name I have forgotten – is now dead, and I am very alive."

In the interview, Ginsburg revealed one of her dreams that she recently entrusted to retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, who died last month at the age of 99.

"I said I dreamed of staying at court as long as it would stay," she said. And his immediate response was: "Stay longer!"

Christopher Brito, Grace Segers, Jan Crawford and Ashley Welch contributed to the report

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