Israel’s Olmert to have cancer surgery

Ehud Olmert became prime minister in January 2006 after Ariel Sharon suffered a massive stroke.

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced Monday that he had been diagnosed with an early stage of prostate cancer and would undergo surgery, but that his condition was not life-threatening and he would stay on the job.

“According to what my doctors have told me, it is a matter of a microscopic growth that hasn’t spread and can be removed by a short surgical procedure,” Olmert said at a nationally televised news conference, adding that surgery was planned “in the next few months.”

“I will be able to carry out my duties fully before the treatment and already a few hours afterward,” he said. “My doctors ... informed me that there is a full chance of recovery, and that there is nothing about the discovered tumor which is life-threatening or that would impair my performance or ability to fulfill the mission I have been charged with. Therefore I intend to continue my work and devote myself entirely to running the affairs of state.”

Olmert, 62, took office in January 2006 after his predecessor, Ariel Sharon, suffered a massive stroke. Sharon has remained in a coma ever since, and his case prompted demands for full disclosure by the prime minister of his state of health.

Israeli political leaders do not regularly issue pronouncements about their health, and notice of Olmert’s planned news conference generated intense speculation about his medical condition. After announcing his illness calmly, Olmert walked out of the briefing room, leaving his doctors to answer reporters’ questions.

The announcement comes weeks ahead of a planned U.S.-sponsored international meeting to relaunch Middle East peace talks, but an aide to the prime minister said he would not undergo treatment before then.

One of Olmert’s doctors, Yaacov Ramon, said the prime minister had a “limited growth that does not pose any short-term threat and therefore does not require urgent treatment.” He added: “The growth was discovered at an early stage and is curable.”

In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Olmert “to wish him a speedy recovery,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters. He said he did not expect Olmert’s illness to affect Rice’s plans to visit Israel and the Palestinian territories beginning this weekend to prepare for the international meeting expected in late November or December in Annapolis, Md.

Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian negotiator and senior aide to President Mahmoud Abbas, wished Olmert a “speedy recovery.” Abbas has survived a bout with prostate cancer.

The prostate is a walnut-shaped gland that helps make and store seminal fluid. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men after lung cancer worldwide, according to Cancer Research UK. It is commonly found in men older than 50.

Prostate cancer can be treated with surgery, radiation , hormonal therapy and occasionally chemotherapy.