Dulles Suspected He Had Cancer

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28823, 18 February 1959, Page 13

Dulles Suspected He Had Cancer

(Rec. 9.20 p.m.) WASHINGTON. February 17. According to associates, the Secretary of State (Mr Dulles) suspected even before he entered the hospital that there was a recurrence of the malignancy which prompted his first intestinal operation in 1956.

His associates said that he showed no emotion and made no particular comment when hi- doctors confirmed his suspicions. There never was any question, friends said, that Mr Dulles should not be told directly by his doctors of the seriousness of his illness, and they informed him without delay.

While medical authorities are divided in their opinion on whether a cancer patient should be notified of the nature of his disease, the doctors felt for three reasons that Mr Dulles should be told immediately.

First. Mr Dulles had a record of cancer and it would have been difficult to mislead him on his symptoms. Second, he was the type

of man who liked to face the facts and wanted them unvarnished. Third, he was a man of great physical stamina with a fighting spirit.

' After his operation, Mr Dulles told Major-General Leonard Heaton, the commandant of the Walter Reed Army Medical Centre,' that he felt better than he had in two months. Associates said Mr >u.,es had been in great pain since last December and had been restricted to a rigid diet On his recent trip to Europe, he had difficulty retaining food. Under the circumstances, friends

said, Mr Dulles probably was anxious to have his ailment diagnosed so he could get on with the treatment and retun as soon as possible to his work.

Medical authorities said that cancer might be controlled for- as much as three years in such cases. They said the patients might get back to at least limited work for a time.

The advisability of replacing Mr Dunes as Secretary of State was getting serious consideration from both friends and foes of the Eisenhower Administration, the “New York Times” reported.

A cancer specialist. Dr. Gordon Zubrod, who might be able to help clarify the medical outlook in Mr Dulles’s case, was caUed in by Mr Dulles’s doctors, it said.

The thought,, voiced privately by many oh Capitol Hill, that a new secretary should be appointed, was expressed openly today by both the Washington ‘Tost,” and the Washington '‘Evening Star.”