Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Has Surgery for Lung Cancer — Her Third Bout With Cancer

Although an actual prognosis can’t be given for Ginsburg until doctors get her pathology report back, if there is no lymph node involvement, the prognosis will likely be very high. “If, in the end, this is a stage one lung cancer, you’re done, no additional treatment is needed,” Dr. Joseph Friedberg, a thoracic surgeon at University of Maryland School of Medicine, told SurvivorNet when discussing the prognosis of early-stage lung cancers in general. “Surgery is the treatment for that cancer.”

This is the third time Ginsburg has battled cancer. In 1999, she underwent treatment for colorectal cancer. In 2009, she faced pancreatic cancer. If there are no complications from her latest bout with cancer, it’s likely that she will be able to make a relatively quick recovery. NPR reported that the Justice plans to be back on the court for the start of the next argument session — on Jan. 7. In 25 years on the Supreme Court — despite the bouts with cancer — Justice Ginsburg has never missed a day of work.

Ginsburg’s cancer was discovered because she was having an X-ray for something unrelated. Typically, lung cancer is difficult to catch in the early stages. “It causes no symptoms until it has spread somewhere,” Dr. Friedberg said. “If it spreads to the bones, it may cause pain. If it spreads to the brain, it may cause something not subtle, like a seizure.”

In the absence of symptoms that present after lung cancer has spread, a lot of times early-stage lung cancers are found during unrelated chest X-rays — when a doctor identifies something like a shadow that requires more testing.

In Ginsburg’s case — if a pathology report comes back showing no lymph node involvement, surgeons contacted by NPR gave Ginsburg an 80% chance of remaining cancer-free for the next five years. The chance of cancer returning is at the highest during the first five years after treatment. “We continue very careful surveillance at least for the first five years,” Dr. Ken Miller, Director of Outpatient Oncology at the University of Maryland, told SurvivorNet. “During that time [we do] physical exams, laboratory studies, X-ray studies, looking for any sign of recurrence. As we start to reach five years and beyond, the risk of recurrence is lower.”

There’s no word yet on if her recent heath issues will prompt Ginsburg to consider retiring — but she has said before that she will serve on the Supreme Court for as long as she is physically able.

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