Reagan surgery goes well

Press, 7 January 1987, Page 8

Reagan surgery goes well

NZPA-Reuter Washington President Ronald Reagan, in his fourth day in hospital, is scheduled for more tests today to check for signs of cancer, and will also receive the final test results on tissue removed during yesterday’s prostate surgery. Mr Reagan will undergo an abdominal CAT scan X-ray this morning at Bethesda Naval Medical Centre, as part of his sixmonthly check-up for recurrence of colon cancer. .

Mr Reagan, at 75 the oldest president in United States history, underwent surgery in July, 1985, for removal of a cancerous tumour from his colon. A separate test on Monday, during which doctors removed four small polyps from Mr Reagan’s colon, showed no sign of cancer. Doctors also said a preliminary examination of tissue removed during yesterday’s prostate surgery showed no evidence of cancer. Medical experts said

before the surgery there was a 10 per cent chance that doctors would find cancerous cells in the tissue removed from Mr Reagan’s urinary tract. _ But they said that was ordinarily no cause for alarm because the type of cancer usually found there tended to spread very slowly. The CAT scan will complete the medical work on Mr Reagan, who is ex-

pected to leave the hospital and return to the White House in the next day or two. Yesterday’s surgery involved cutting away pieces of Mr Reagan’s enlarged prostate gland in order to alleviate urinary discomfort. The operation was performed under local anaesthetic and Mr Reagan was fully conscious throughout. •