Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has successfully completed another round of cancer treatment, her second in the past year, and given a clean bill of health, according to a statement released on Friday by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Ginsburg was treated using a new form of outpatient radiation therapy called stereotactic ablative radiation therapy for a tumor found on her pancreas. As part of the treatment, a stent was inserted into Ginsburg’s bile duct. Based on the timeline given in the statement, the cancer was detected and treated very early. The long-standing Supreme Court justice began her three-week treatment plan on August 5 at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, and her doctors reported positive results from the treatment with no evidence of cancer elsewhere in her body. According to the Supreme Court’s statement, the cancer was first discovered during a routine blood test in July. It was diagnosed by the end of the month and then she immediately began treatment.
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Ginsburg has a history of quick recoveries. It seems like before the public has even learned of her illness, she overcame it. “The justice tolerated treatment well. She cancelled her annual summer visit to Santa Fe, but has otherwise maintained an active schedule,” reads the statement. We know from previous interviews that Ginsburg, 86, has no plans to retire until she turns 90.
This is the second time Ginsburg has been treated for cancer in the past year. In December 2018, she was treated for lung cancer, where she was also issued a clean bill of health at the end of her treatment. Over the past 20 years, Ginsburg has battled various forms of cancer four times.
“The tumor was treated definitively and there is no evidence of disease elsewhere in the body. Justice Ginsburg will continue to have periodic blood tests and scans,” the statement continues. “No further treatment is needed at this time.”