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Deputy Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has recently undergone a new treatment for a pancreatic cancer tumor, the High Court said in a statement on Friday.
The three-week radiation therapy, performed at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, was administered after doctors discovered a "malignant tumor localized" on his pancreas on July 31, the statement said.
The treatment – called ablative stereotactic radiotherapy – was administered on an outpatient basis for a period of three weeks starting on August 5th. Doctors have also inserted a biliary stent into the treatment, which Ginsburg ended Friday, the court said.
In its statement, the court stated that Ginsburg "tolerated the treatment well" and "that no other treatment is necessary at the moment".
"The tumor has been treated definitively and there is no evidence of disease elsewhere in the body," said the court. "Judge Ginsburg will continue to undergo periodic blood tests and analyzes."
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The tumor is the latest warning to cancer of justice, 86 years old. She has suffered many health problems in recent months, including a fractured fall to three ribs in November, followed by surgery to remove two cancerous growths from her lungs at the end of December. She missed pleadings for a case in January, the first time she had been missing court cases for 25 years.
Colon cancer was diagnosed in Ginsburg in 1999 and pancreatic cancer in 2009.
Pancreatic cancer is usually diagnosed at an advanced stage of the disease because its early symptoms can be quite vague, including loss of appetite, depression, jaundice, fatigue and abdominal pain.
According to the American Cancer Society, the vast majority of patients with pancreatic cancer will die within five years of diagnosis. Only 9% should survive more than five years.
In general, Ginsberg tolerated the most recent radiotherapy treatment.
"A three-week treatment for pancreatic cancer is becoming a standard of care," said Dr. Kenneth Merrell, a radiation oncologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Merrell did not deal with Justice Ginsberg.
"We find that it's a very tolerable treatment that has little impact on the patient's quality of life," Merrell told NBC News.
Nicknamed "RBG" affectionately, Ginsburg is the oldest judge of the Court. He was appointed in 1993 by then President Bill Clinton.
If Liberal Ginsburg were to withdraw from the seat, then President Donald Trump could appoint his replacement. The nine-member court is currently composed of five judges appointed by the Republican Presidents and four appointed by the Democratic Presidents. Trump has so far named, and confirmed, two of the judges, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Said that if a vacancy on the Supreme Court were to be filled next year, he would act to fill it quickly. Merrick Garland, court candidate, following the death of Judge Antonin Scalia earlier that year.
Ginsburg, however, promised to stay in the field for several more years, if possible.
Last August, she told CNN that she had no plans to retire in the near future.
"My senior colleague, Judge John Paul Stevens, resigned at the age of 90. So I think I'm still at least five years old," she said.
Erika Edwards contributed.
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