Senates Dodd Chooses to Have Surgery to Remove Prostate Cancer
Dodd, the five-term Connecticut Democrat leading health- care legislation through Congress, yesterday said he was diagnosed six weeks ago and feels fine. Surgery will be in New York City during the Senates recess, which begins Aug. 7, Dodd said at a news conference accompanied by his wife, Jackie.
“Im going to be fine; we caught this early,” said Dodd, 65, noting that diagnosis was made after an annual physical. “I anticipate by the end of the month to be out and about.”
Prostate cancer afflicts about 17 percent of men, according to the Prostate Cancer Foundation, an advocacy group. Men older than 65 are more susceptible, the National Cancer Institute said, and was the most common malignancy in men last year with 186,320 new cases, the American Cancer Society said.
“Recent studies have demonstrated this is a complicated disease and even the decision whether to be screened should be made after careful thought,” Otis Brawley, chief medical officer at the cancer society, said yesterday in a statement.
Different treatments are available, the National Cancer Institute said. Doctors may choose to monitor a patient without giving treatment if the disease is in an early stage. Patients may also choose to get surgery, or receive therapy that uses radiation to kill the cancer cells, or a therapy that blocks the hormones cancer cells need to grow, the institute said.
Connecticut Recuperation
Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said he will have his prostate, a walnut-sized gland below the bladder in men, removed at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and will recuperate at his Connecticut home for a couple of weeks before resuming his work in Congress and his campaign.
Dodd has stepped in to lead the health-care package through Congress on behalf of Senate Health Committee Chairman Edward Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat who is undergoing treatment for brain cancer. Dodd said he told Kennedy, a longtime friend, about his cancer diagnosis on July 30.
A Quinnipiac University poll conducted in Connecticut July 16-20 showed Republican challenger Rob Simmons with a nine-point lead over Dodd, 48 percent to 39 percent, up from a six-point lead in a May survey by the school.
“Im running for re-election,” Dodd said yesterday. “Now Ill be a little leaner and a little meaner, but Im running.”
Dodds campaign has more than twice as much cash as Simmons, campaign finance reports show. Dodd had $1.8 million at the end of June, according to a Federal Election Commission report provided by his campaign. Simmons, a former U.S. representative, had $558,132 in the bank, his campaign said.