US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Receives Treatment for Pancreatic Tumor

US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has completed radiation therapy for a cancerous tumor on her pancreas.
Sputnik

In a press release Friday, the court confirmed that Ginsburg “tolerated treatment well” and that “no further treatment is needed at this time.” She began undergoing a three-week course of stereotactic ablative radiation therapy (SABR) at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City on August 5. According to Stanford HealthCare, SABR is a highly focused treatment that administers an “intense dose of radiation concentrated on a tumor, while limiting the dose to the surrounding organs.”

A bile duct stent, or thin tube, was also placed to keep the duct open as part of Ginsburg’s treatment. 

"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.”

“She canceled her annual summer visit to Santa Fe, but has otherwise maintained an active schedule,” the statement adds.

The tumor was first detected during a routine blood test in July, the press release also noted. A biopsy conducted by the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center confirmed that there was a “localized malignant tumor” on Ginsburg’s pancreas in July. 

This latest treatment comes months after Ginsburg had two malignant nodules removed from her left lung in December 2018. The New York City native was previously diagnosed with colon cancer and pancreatic cancer in 1999 and 2009, respectively. In 2014, she also had a stent placed in her right coronary artery to improve blood flow to her heart.

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