Ruth Bader Ginsburg Cancer

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the only woman currently serving on the nation's highest court, underwent surgery Thursday for removal of a cancerous tumor from her pancreas.

Ginsburg, 75, had the surgery at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. She will remain in the hospital for seven to 10 days, said her surgeon, Dr. Murray Brennan, according to a release issued by the court.

In a statement, the court said the cancer was discovered during a routine scan in late January. The scan revealed a small tumor, about 0.4 inches across, in the center of the pancreas. Ginsburg, 75, had experienced no symptoms before the discovery of the cancer, the court said.

She underwent surgery today at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. She is expected to remain in the hospital for seven to 10 days.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said President Obama's "thoughts and prayers are with her and her family right now, and we hope for and wish her a speedy recovery right now."

Ginsburg , who was appointed to the court in 1993 by President Clinton, is a survivor of colon cancer and underwent months of radiation and chemotherapy treatments in 1999. She never missed a day on the court during her recovery.
The key, doctors said, is whether the cancer has spread beyond the pancreas.

Ginsburg's pancreatic cancer was discovered early, in the course of a routine annual screening, but medical literature says even in this circumstance, a patient's five-year survival chances range from 10 to 30 percent.

If it has not, then Ginsburg "is a very lucky woman," said Randolph Hecht, director of the gastrointestinal oncology program at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. Because it was so small and localized, she probably has a 30% to 40% chance of surviving for five years, he said.

The only curative treatment for pancreatic cancer is surgery, and that is effective only if it is identified early.

But before her illness Ginsburg has never hinted at retirement and in fact has recently suggested that she would like to remain on the court into her 80s.

The announcement from the Supreme Court was unusual because of its degree of specificity about the nature of Ginsburg's illness. Typically the court releases little information about the health of the justices.

A former general counsel to the American Civil Liberties Union, Ginsburg has long been considered to be one of the court's most liberal members. She has been a consistent advocate for civil rights and abortion rights during her time on the court. Ironically, she is closest on the court to conservative Antonin Scalia. They enjoy a mutual passion for opera.

Ginsburg was the first tenured female law professor at Columbia in the 1970s, and her daughter, Jane, is on the faculty at the school. She served as an appellate judge in Washington before her Supreme Court appointment. Ginsburg became the second female justice in court history and has lamented her role as the court's only woman after the retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly cancers: Nearly 38,000 cases a year are diagnosed and overall, fewer than 5 percent survive five years.