Success of O’Neill Surgery Rules Out Need for Therapy
BOSTON — Pathology tests on former House Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill Jr. (D-Mass.) revealed that his bowel surgery was successful in removing all cancer and no further treatment will be needed, it was announced Friday.
His tumor did not involve the lymph nodes or extend through the full thickness of the rectal muscle, said Dr. Richard E. Wilson, chief of surgical oncology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
“Therefore, no consideration will be necessary for chemotherapy or radiation therapy,” Wilson said. “The pathology reports confirm that the prognosis is excellent.”
Wilson said O’Neill would need surgery later for a non-cancerous prostate problem but that no more treatment would be necessary for the bowel cancer.
O’Neill, 74, who underwent surgery Wednesday, is scheduled to be moved today from the intensive care unit to a private room, a spokesman said. It is not known how long he will be hospitalized.
Doctors removed a tumor the size of a golf ball from his rectum and performed a permanent colostomy, which provides an artificial route for defecation.
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