Ruth Bader Ginsburg underwent treatment for tumor on pancreas, Supreme Court says
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg recently underwent a fresh round of treatment for a cancerous tumor on her pancreas, the high court said in a statement Friday.
The three-week radiation treatment, performed at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, was administered after doctors discovered a "localized malignant tumor" on her pancreas on July 31, the statement said.
The treatment — called stereotactic ablative radiation therapy — was administered in an outpatient setting for a three-week period that began Aug. 5. Doctors also inserted a bile duct stent as part of the treatment, which Ginsburg completed Friday, the court said.
In the statement, the court said that Ginsburg "tolerated treatment well" and that "no further treatment is needed at this time."
"The tumor was treated definitively and there is no evidence of disease elsewhere in the body," the court said. "Justice Ginsburg will continue to have periodic blood tests and scans."
The tumor is the 86-year-old justice’s latest cancer scare. She has suffered a number of health setbacks in recent months, including a fall that fractured three ribs in November followed by surgery to remove two cancerous growths from her lung at the end of December. She missed oral arguments for a case in January, the first time she had missed courtroom arguments in 25 years.
Ginsburg had been diagnosed with colon cancer in 1999 and pancreatic cancer in 2009.
Pancreatic cancer is usually diagnosed at later stages of the disease, because its earliest symptoms can be quite vague, including loss of appetite, depression, jaundice, fatigue and abdominal pain.
The vast majority of pancreatic cancer patients will die within five years of diagnosis, according to the American Cancer Society. Just 9 percent are expected to survive more than five years.
By all accounts, Ginsberg has tolerated this most recent radiation treatment well.
"A three-week course of radiation for pancreas cancer is moving into the standard of care," said Dr. Kenneth Merrell, a radiation oncologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Merrell has not treated Justice Ginsberg.
"We are finding that this is a very tolerable course of treatment with little impact on the patient's quality of life," Merrell told NBC News.
Affectionately known as "RBG," Ginsburg is the court's oldest serving justice and was nominated in 1993 by then-President Bill Clinton.
If the liberal Ginsburg were to step down from the bench, that would enable President Donald Trump to name her replacement. The nine-person court is currently made up of five justices nominated by Republican presidents and four nominated by Democratic presidents. Trump has so far nominated, and seen confirmed, two of the justices, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said that if a Supreme Court vacancy were to emerge next year, he would act to fill it quickly — a stark divergence from his decision in 2016 to block the consideration of President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia earlier that year.
Ginsburg, however, has vowed to stay on the court for several more years, if possible.
Last August, she told CNN that she had no intention of retiring in the near future.
"My senior colleague, Justice John Paul Stevens, stepped down when he was 90, so I think I have about at least five more years," she said.
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Got to admire her tenacity.
Several. If Trump is reelected he will likely nominate her replacement.
Indeed. That and other qualities she has too.
That she does, however there were some who thought she should retire while Obama was president, so he could name a replacement. She said the same thing then as she said now. "At my age you have to take it year-by-year." Who can argue with that?
She is one tough cookie, that is for sure.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said Tuesday that she is "very much alive," tamping down concerns that recent health issues could cause her to leave the bench.
"There was a senator, I think it was after my pancreatic cancer [in 2009], who announced with great glee that I was going to be dead within six months," she told National Public Radio . "That senator, whose name I've forgotten, is now himself dead and I am very much alive."
She's going to live to be 100.
She is great at defying the odds so who knows?
Well, she has her exercise program and she has really good healthcare. To see the problems and issues with her early.
I am really glad to read she is in positive spirits! All these internal cutting, sewing, and wound closing on a woman in her 80's can not be what J. Ginsberg had planned for her old age. Each time I see her now, I can not help think Barack Obama should have offered to replace her on the Court. Then again, may be it was her who did not express an interest in leaving!
I am betting more than that.
Could be, John. She has taken care of herself.
Providence willing The Indomitable RBG will tenaciously persevere for years...
We do have to pray and/or send our best wishes to her. Then work hard to win this 2020 election. Forces are building against Donald Trump, but life has a way of leaning into Donald Trump (J. Kennedy swerved "into" Trump after all the beneficial years of opinings). Strange things can happen in political 'years.' Justice Ginsberg is honestly contending to keep up her part of this 'bargain.' Now come 2020 liberals in this country have to take care of their part. And, let her go 'rest'!
I'll see you at the polls come election day!
I disagree with RBG on almost every issue I can think of. But I wish her health, long life, and happiness.
So to my batshit crazy liberal/leftist friends who have spent the day dancing on David Koch's grave... do you see how this works?
What a strong woman. I wish her the best.
May God richly bless you, RBG! (But in 2020 when a democrat president wins - take that as a sign - go enjoy your twilight years!)
I think it's encouraging to see any somewhat good news in connection with pancreatic cancer. That variety, in particular seems like it's almost always fatal by the time they find it.
Patrick Swayze comes to mind.