Ginsburg has radiation treatment for tumor on her pancreas

The Supreme Court announced today that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg recently finished radiation therapy to treat a tumor on her pancreas. It was the second time that the 86-year-old Ginsburg, who had surgery to remove cancerous growths from her lung in December, has been treated for cancer in less than nine months.

In a statement released by the court’s Public Information Office, the court recounted that a “routine blood test in early July” had detected a tumor on Ginsburg’s pancreas; a biopsy performed at New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center – where Ginsburg was treated last year – confirmed that the tumor was malignant. On August 5, Ginsburg began a three-week course of radiation therapy, which she finished today. Ginsburg “tolerated treatment well,” the court reported: “She cancelled her annual summer visit to Santa Fe, but has otherwise maintained an active schedule.”

Ginsburg’s “tumor was treated definitively,” the court continued, “and there is no evidence of disease elsewhere in the body.” And although “Justice Ginsburg will continue to have periodic blood tests and scans,” the court concluded, no “further treatment is needed at this time.”

Ginsburg was previously treated for pancreatic cancer in 2009 and for colon cancer in 1999. She also underwent heart surgery in 2014.

The justices are currently in their summer recess. They are scheduled to resume oral arguments on the first Monday in October.

This post was originally published at Howe on the Court.