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Butler Not Closing Any Doors

From Associated Press

One day after saying he has cancer, Brett Butler refused to rule out returning to the Dodgers this season.

“I don’t know. Let’s wait,” he said Wednesday. “Is there a chance that I could play this year? Talking to all the doctors and everything, I don’t know if there is a chance that I can come back. If it is, it would probably be late in the season. Then again, we’re not going to close any door right now.”

The outfielder, who has cancer of the tonsils, told television station KNBC he is “overwhelmed” by the response from friends and fans.

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“I’m not giving up on this thing,” he said. “We’re going to beat this thing. One of these days I’m going to be back out there tipping my hat and hopefully everything will be all right.”

Dr. Robert Gadlage said Wednesday that Butler’s right tonsil was three or four times its normal size when he removed it last week.

“When I looked in the back of his throat, I consciously tried not to look shocked,” Gadlage said Wednesday. “Later on I asked [Butler’s wife] Eveline, ‘When I looked at the back of his throat, could you tell that it looked different?’ She said she saw me kind of jump back a little bit.

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Later, she told him the family “assumed there was going to be something that was not what you expected.”

Gadlage said he told Butler, 38, in the recovery room he’d found a tumor and Butler’s first question was: Is it malignant?

“He was shocked. His family was shocked,” Gadlage said.

Butler’s voice was raspy during the television interview.

“My throat is sore from them taking out a plum-sized tonsil, when in fact it should have been the size of probably an acorn, and that’s why my speech right now, it’s the worst pain you can have in your throat,” he told KNBC. “It’s going to be this way for about 10 days and then hopefully, things will settle down a little bit.”

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Doctors say the tumor may have been caused by secondhand exposure to cigarette smoke.

“The biggest risk [for this kind of cancer] is some exposure to nicotine,” Gadlage said.

Gadlage downplayed the significance of Butler’s use of chewing tobacco in his early days as a player. Butler’s parents smoked, so Butler was exposed to secondhand smoke consistently as a child.

“We can see someone who smokes two packs a day, three packs a day for 50 years who never gets this. Then there’s somebody with minimal exposure like Brett,” Gadlage said.

“The last time I dipped was 15 years ago, so to say that was the reason why I got this I think is reaching for something that isn’t there,” Butler told the TV station.

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Gadlage said Dr. William Grist, director of the Head and Neck Cancer Surgery Department at Emory University in Atlanta, believes there still is some cancer in Butler’s neck. An abnormal lymph node will be removed May 21 and two weeks later, Butler will start six weeks of radiation treatments.

“In Dr. Grist’s opinion, there is still some cancer around that tonsil, and we have to assume that’s what’s causing the one lymph node he still has to stay enlarged,” Gadlage said.

Gadlage said Grist “didn’t say anything about his career being over. He did say it wouldn’t be wise for him to try to go back this year.”

He said the recovery rate for this cancer is close to 70%, “but you’ve got to add at least a few percentage points” for Butler because he’s in good physical condition.

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