Justice Ginsburg says cancer has returned, but won’t retire

WASHINGTON
(AP) — Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said Friday she is receiving
chemotherapy for a recurrence of cancer, but has no plans to retire from
the Supreme Court.

The 87-year-old Ginsburg, who has had four
earlier bouts with cancer including pancreatic cancer last year, said
her treatment so far has succeeded in reducing lesions on her liver and
she will continue chemotherapy sessions every two weeks “to keep my
cancer at bay.”

“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,” Ginsburg said in a statement issued by the court.

Ginsburg,
who was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1993, is the senior
liberal justice on a court that leans conservative by a 5-4 margin. Her
departure before the election could give President Donald Trump the
chance to shift the court further to the right.

Ginsburg’s history
with cancer goes back more than 20 years. In addition to being treated
without surgery for a tumor on her pancreas last year, she also
underwent surgery for colorectal cancer in 1999, pancreatic cancer in
2009 and lung cancer in December 2018.

Dr. Alan Venook, a
pancreatic cancer specialist at the University of California, San
Francisco, who is not involved in Ginsburg’s care, said that “clearly,
she’s got incurable disease now” because of the spread to her liver.

On
average, patients with advanced pancreatic cancer live about a year,
but the fact that her disease took so long to recur from her initial
pancreatic cancer surgery in 2009 and previous treatments “suggests that
it’s not been growing rapidly,” he said.

“She’s above average in
many ways.” and has done remarkably well with all her treatments so far,
Venook said. “There’s no reason to think she would die imminently.”

Asked
earlier this week about a possible opening on the court before the
election, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said the president
would act quickly if any opening were to arise. Meadows commented after
news that Ginsburg had left the hospital after receiving treatment for an infection, which she said Friday was unrelated to the cancer.

“I
can’t imagine if he had a vacancy on the Supreme Court that he would
not very quickly make the appointment and look for the Senate to take
quick action,” Meadows said, adding that he didn’t want any comment to
be seen as wishing Ginsburg “anything but the very best.”

Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said that if there were to
be a vacancy on the court during this year’s election cycle, the
Republican-controlled Senate would likely confirm a nominee selected by
Trump.

Ginsburg said she was disclosing her cancer treatment now because she is satisfied “that my treatment course is now clear.”

Venook
said the chemotherapy drug Ginsburg said she is getting, gemcitabine,
is one that’s often used. Immunotherapy, which Ginsburg’s statement said
she tried unsuccessfully, has not worked well for pancreatic cancer,
Venook said.

Ginsburg said a medical scan in February revealed growths on her liver and she began chemotherapy in May.

“My
most recent scan on July 7 indicated significant reduction of the liver
lesions and no new disease,” she said. “I am tolerating chemotherapy
well and am encouraged by the success of my current treatment.”

Ginsburg
noted that she is able to “maintain an active daily routine” and that
throughout her treatment she has “kept up with opinion writing and all
other Court work.”

When the justices heard arguments via telephone in May because of the coronavirus pandemic, Ginsburg participated one day from a hospital room in Baltimore. She was being treated for gall stones, and said Friday that hospitalization also had nothing to do with the cancer.

Associated Press Chief Medical Writer Marilynn Marchione contributed to this report.