Tutu’s Cancer Contained
ATLANTA — Cancer detected in South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu has not spread beyond his prostate, doctors told the Nobel Prize winner on Saturday.
A tissue sample from Tutu’s lymph nodes was taken Thursday to determine if the cancer had spread.
The procedure also helped doctors to determine that cryosurgery, which uses liquid nitrogen to freeze the cancer, should be effective in treating Tutu’s prostate gland.
Urologist Harry Clarke of Emory University Hospital delivered the news to Tutu on Saturday while Tutu rested at his Atlanta home. Clarke hopes to perform the cryosurgery within the next few weeks, Tutu spokesman John Allen said.
“This is a great relief for his family,” Allen said. “They were obviously very worried at the possibility that the cancer may have spread.”
Tutu was first diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1997 and was treated for it. He learned earlier this month that the cancer had returned.
Tutu is now a theology professor at Emory.
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