Issued by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
October 19, 1999
Archbishop Desmond Tutu will be admitted to hospital in Atlanta in the United States on Thursday for tests to determine new treatment for prostate cancer.
Recent tests in Atlanta have indicated that there has been a recurrence of the prostate cancer first diagnosed and treated in 1997. "I understand this is a fairly normal occurrence two years after radiation treatment," Archbishop Tutu said in a statement from Atlanta.
"On Thursday I will have an operation to determine whether the cancer has spread beyond the prostate gland. If it is confined to the prostate, I expect to undergo cryosurgery - a technique in which the affected tissue is frozen with liquid nitrogen."
"If it has spread, I am likely to undergo renewed hormone treatment, which ran concurrently with my radiation therapy in 1997.
"But I am feeling fine."
Contact: John Allen - 091 - 404 - 727 6601.