Doctors say cardinal's cancer had not spread beyond bladder, ureters

Published: 2006-08-01

MAYWOOD, Ill. (CNS) -- Doctors at Loyola University Medical Center announced July 31 that the cancer in Chicago Cardinal Francis E. George's bladder and ureters had not spread. Jesuit Father Myles Sheehan, who is Cardinal George's personal physician, opened the press conference by saying, "Given what we knew entering into the cardinal's surgery on Thursday, we are happy to report the best possible outcome. The tumor was contained within the bladder and ureters without evidence of going into the lymph nodes or metastasizing." The cardinal should be able to resume his duties in several weeks, he said. He was moved from intensive care to a general medical/surgical floor the afternoon of July 31, and his doctors said he can expect to return home in about a week. Cardinal George, 69, underwent a five-hour operation to remove his bladder, prostate gland and sections of his ureters -- the tubes that carry urine from the kidneys to the bladder -- the morning of July 27 at the medical center in Maywood. Just before midnight that night, he went back into surgery after his blood pressure became unstable; doctors found a small bleeding artery and closed it off. Shortly after finishing the first operation, Cardinal George's medical team addressed journalists to explain that they had removed part of the blocked ureter and Cardinal George's prostate gland as well as his bladder. Dr. Robert Flanigan, who performed the surgery, put the five-year prognosis for recovery at Cardinal George's stage of cancer at 70 to 80 percent.

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