ABC World News (2/5, lead story, 3:00, Gibson) reported that "there are but nine justices on the Supreme Court," so the "health of each is closely watched." Earlier this week, it was announced that the "only woman on the US Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg," had been admitted to the hospital after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, the CBS Evening News (2/5, story 3, 1:20, Couric) added.
NBC Nightly News (2/5, story 5, 1:35, Williams) pointed out that "it can be one of the deadliest forms of the disease." But she has fought a similar battle before. "In 1999, she had colon cancer surgery, underwent radiation and chemotherapy, and never missed a day on the bench," according to the AP (2/5). Statistics, however, "suggest this could be a tougher fight." Data indicate that "nearly 38,000 cases a year are diagnosed, and overall less than five percent of patients survive five years." Apparently, "fewer than one in 10 cases are diagnosed at an early stage -- like Ginsburg's appears to be -- before the cancer has begun spreading through the abdomen and beyond. That's because early pancreatic cancer produces few symptoms other than vague indigestion."
Likewise, the 75-year-old "had no symptoms before a CT scan" conducted during "a routine annual check-up at the National Institutes of Health late last month" uncovered the tumor, Sarah Rubenstein explained in the Wall Street Journal (2/5) Health Blog. She was then admitted to "Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. The attending surgeon, Murray Brennan, said Ginsburg will likely stay in the hospital for a week to 10 days."
Proffering an opinion on surgical outcomes, the Los Angeles Times (2/6, Oliphant, Maugh) interviewed Randolph Hecht, "director of the gastrointestinal oncology program at" the University of California-Los Angeles, who said that Ginsburg "probably has a 30 to 40 percent chance of surviving for five years" because the tumor was "about a half-inch across, [and] was found in the center of the pancreas."
Meanwhile, according to Medscape (2/5, Osterweil), "there has been a marked increase in pancreatic cancer incidence during the last several decades, although the reasons for the increase are unclear." The research community believes that "risk factors...include tobacco use, obesity, physical inactivity, chronic pancreatitis, diabetes, and cirrhosis of the liver." Notably, the American Cancer Society points out "that pancreatic cancer rates are higher in countries where high-fat diets are typical."
Bloomberg News (2/6, Stohr), Long Island's Newsday (2/5, Ricks), MedPage Today (2/5, Gever) and WebMD (2/5, Hitti) also covered the story, as did ABC (2/5, Chitale, Childs, et. al) on its website.
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