Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg suffered a recurrence of cancer earlier this year and began chemotherapy in May, she said in a statement Friday.
Ginsburg, 87, said the chemotherapy is “yielding positive results” and shrank lesions that were found on her liver in February.
"I have often said I would remain a member of the Court as long as I can do the job full steam. I remain fully able to do that," she said.
Ginsburg, who is the court’s oldest member and its longest-serving Democratic appointee, has suffered several bouts of cancer in recent years and acknowledged last year that she was receiving treatment for pancreatic cancer. As recently as January, however, she said publicly that doctors believed she was cancer free.
Ginsburg’s new statement does not discuss the potential to cure the cancer, but instead stresses that it has not interfered with her duties as a justice.
"I am tolerating chemotherapy well and am encouraged by the success of my current treatment. I will continue bi-weekly chemotherapy to keep my cancer at bay, and am able to maintain an active daily routine. Throughout, I have kept up with opinion writing and all other Court work," Ginsburg wrote.
Ginsburg said doctors first attempted immunotherapy to fight the liver lesions, but that proved "unsuccessful," prompting the move to chemotherapy.
Ginsburg was hospitalized briefly earlier this week for what the court said was a "possible infection" that may have been related to a blocked stent placed in her bile duct during the pancreatic cancer treatment last year. She also spent two nights in the hospital in May for treatment of a gallstone. The new statement said those episodes were "unrelated" to the cancer recurrence.
Ginsburg was President Bill Clinton’s first nominee to the Supreme Court, confirmed by the Senate in 1993 in a 96-3 vote.
Source: politico.com
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