Good News on Justice Ginsberg

By Jeralyn, Section Supreme Court
Posted on Fri Feb 13, 2009 at 12:44:26 PM EST
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Via ScotusBlog:

The pancreatic cancer for which Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had surgery on February 5 has been determined as TNM Stage 1 by doctors at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. All lymph nodes proved negative for cancer and no metastasis was found. In the procedure Dr. Murray Brennan, the attending pancreatic surgeon, removed the Justice’s spleen along with a portion of her pancreas.

Extraordinarily, the approximately 1 cm lesion revealed on a late January CAT scan, the discovery of which led to the February 5 surgery, proved benign. But in searching the entire pancreas Dr. Brennan identified a previously undetected single, even smaller, tumor which upon examination was found malignant.

Justice Ginsberg was released from the hospital today and is recuperating at home. Our best wishes for a speedy recovery.

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Good News on Justice Ginsberg | 19 comments (19 topical)

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I certainly wish her well. (5.00 / 3) (#1)
by oculus on Fri Feb 13, 2009 at 12:47:05 PM EST

On the other hand, I'm very glad my medical history is not the subject of a SCOTUS press release.

Indeed (5.00 / 1) (#2)
by andgarden on Fri Feb 13, 2009 at 12:48:56 PM EST

I dunno (none / 0) (#11)
by Steve M on Fri Feb 13, 2009 at 01:23:37 PM EST

You just retired, after all. You're clearly not at the age yet where you're going to start volunteering your medical history to the entire world, but that doesn't mean the day will never come!

As I said to my mom a little while back, "Having a hip replacement doesn't mean you're old. When you find yourself walking up to strangers and telling them about your hip replacement, then you'll know you're old!"


: heh (none / 0) (#13)
by andgarden on Fri Feb 13, 2009 at 01:27:58 PM EST

: Wait. You'll get there. (none / 0) (#19)
by oculus on Sat Feb 14, 2009 at 12:11:25 AM EST

"Our best wishes for a speedy recovery." (5.00 / 1) (#3)
by sarcastic unnamed one on Fri Feb 13, 2009 at 12:49:15 PM EST

Thanks for passing on the good news (5.00 / 3) (#4)
by Radiowalla on Fri Feb 13, 2009 at 12:56:45 PM EST

and best wishes to Justice Ginsburg for a rapid return to health.

Justice Ginsberg is (5.00 / 1) (#6)
by KeysDan on Fri Feb 13, 2009 at 01:04:42 PM EST

amazing, and her intrinsically positive attitude will be a complementary companion to her surgical and medical treatments. The surgical finding is odd, but, certainly, lends itself to a more favorable prognosis.

Sigh of relief (5.00 / 2) (#7)
by Tom Hilton on Fri Feb 13, 2009 at 01:08:08 PM EST

"Best wishes for a speedy recovery" indeed--times 10.

Wow. It's wonderful that it was found so early (5.00 / 4) (#8)
by esmense on Fri Feb 13, 2009 at 01:08:42 PM EST

My mother died of pancreatic cancer at only 57. Never smoked or drank, ate healthy, exercised regularly, was a wonderfully active and youthful person. By the time she had any symptoms -- what she thought was a pulled muscle in her back -- the cancer was well progressed. She died within two months of diagnosis. It was a terrible shock -- it is a terrible disease.

Same thing with my friend's dad. (none / 0) (#9)
by Teresa on Fri Feb 13, 2009 at 01:13:15 PM EST

He was having trouble with his stomach bloating, went to the doctor and died six weeks later.

We probably all need to have those scans that check your whole body for silent diseases like this. If we all only had good health insurance that would let us do that.


Lotsa debate on the efficacy of those scans. (5.00 / 1) (#10)
by sarcastic unnamed one on Fri Feb 13, 2009 at 01:19:52 PM EST

And at $500-1500, if you really think it's a life or death issue for you, you can probably figure out a way to pay for it...


: Yeah, but then I'd have no way to pay for (none / 0) (#15)
by Teresa on Fri Feb 13, 2009 at 01:55:28 PM EST

what they might find. I guess I won't be getting one anytime soon.

Some things... (5.00 / 1) (#14)
by MileHi Hawkeye on Fri Feb 13, 2009 at 01:35:57 PM EST

...I'd rather not know about. I've got enough to worry about without adding to the list of things freak-out about!

No full body scans for me, thanks...


That's great news (5.00 / 1) (#12)
by Steve M on Fri Feb 13, 2009 at 01:24:26 PM EST

Best wishes to Justice Ginsberg. She is clearly one tough customer.

That is good news ,indeed... (none / 0) (#5)
by JThomas on Fri Feb 13, 2009 at 01:02:45 PM EST

She seems so frail, I was concerned about her withstanding the whole ordeal.

I am confused (none / 0) (#16)
by samtaylor2 on Fri Feb 13, 2009 at 02:08:07 PM EST

It is certainly good news that the original cancer wasn't malignant, but the last line of the piece says that they found another cancer that was malignant. The fact that it was small is not the issue. That is not good news. Hopefully what they meant to say was that it was some cancer from somewhere else that spread to the pancreas (meaning the primary cancer is not pancreatic cancer). If the malignant cancer is pancreatic it means that she has malignant pancreatic cancer, and the original cancer they found that was not malignant was just a second primary tumor. Either way I wish her the best.

Sam, the original lesion - the one (5.00 / 1) (#17)
by Anne on Fri Feb 13, 2009 at 02:35:12 PM EST

seen on the CT scan - was not malignant; I think that means it was never cancer to begin with. Thanks to an excellent surgeon, who rightly did a thorough exploration of the pancreas, a smaller tumor was found that was malignant, and was Stage TNM1 - with no lymph node involvement and no metastasis.

Why on earth would they "hopefully" have meant to say that the malignancy found in the pancreas was metastasized from somewhere else? Metastatic malignancy is not "hopeful" news, but a sign that you are probably in serious trouble. Metastases are not staged separately, nor would a metastatic lesion be deemed "pancreatic" cancer if it was not the primary source - breast cancer that metastasizes to the brain is not brain cancer - it is still breast cancer. And the presence of metastases would mean Stage III or IV disease.


: Staging of Cancer (none / 0) (#18)
by samtaylor2 on Fri Feb 13, 2009 at 03:07:34 PM EST

First- something that isn't malignant doesn't mean it isn't cancer. It doesn't even mean that it is benign (for example a primary cancer can cause mass effect or secrete hormones that screw stuff up_. It just means that it hasn't spread- which is a great sign as it can be "solved" via surgery. TNM1 is the stage of the first cancer that was removed. TNM- tumor, nodes, metastasis- is a way to sage the tumor. 1 means it hasn't metastasized by definition.
2nd- I would hope that the metastasized cancer is not pancreatic because pancreatic cancer is very aggressive. Not all cancers act the same even after they metastasize. If they did we would have one set of chemo drugs.