Justice Powell Has Operation : ‘Prognosis Excellent’ After Cancer Surgery

Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. underwent surgery for prostate cancer Friday in a Minnesota hospital and was reported in fair condition.

Powell, at 77 the third oldest member of the court, is expected to be hospitalized for 10 to 14 days and to return to his duties on the bench in February, a court spokesperson said.

“The prognosis is excellent,” Toni House, the court’s public information officer, said.

According to a court announcement, the cancer was discovered at a recent routine physical checkup. Powell, accompanied by his wife, Josephine, underwent tests Thursday and was operated on Friday at Methodist Hospital in Rochester.

The surgery was performed by Dr. David Utz, a urological surgeon at the Mayo Clinic, which is affiliated with the hospital. A clinic spokesman said Friday night that Powell was in fair condition after the operation. Neither the court nor clinic spokesmen would divulge further details of the justice’s condition.

Powell, a successful corporate lawyer from Virginia and a leader of the organized bar, was nominated to the court in 1971 by President Richard M. Nixon to succeed Justice Hugo L. Black, who had resigned. Powell, 64 at the time, at first had been reluctant to accept, wondering whether he was too old to take on the assignment.

He told friends he had finally taken the post with the expectation of staying on for only 10 years. Nonetheless, as he became known as one of the court’s most productive and respected members, Powell stayed on--defying periodic predictions that he would resign. He often wryly noted that his father had remarried at age 88 and lived to be 93.

Generally, Powell has been in good health in his nearly 13 years on the court. In March, 1979, he underwent surgery at Bethesda Naval Hospital outside Washington for the removal of a benign polyp on the colon. After a brief absence, he returned to the bench.

In 1981, Powell suffered an infection after surgery for a tumor in the bowel and missed some court sessions.

Affects Older Men Prostate cancer is an affliction common among older men. According to data from the National Cancer Institute, the five-year survival rate for white victims of prostate cancer ranges between 77% and 85% if the cancer is detected at an early stage. In the most advanced stage of detection, the rate drops to 30%, the data indicates.

The American Cancer Society says prostate cancer is the fourth leading cause of death from cancer--following lung, breast and colon-rectal cancers. The society estimates that about 76,000 men contracted prostate cancer in 1984, with the disease proving fatal to about 25,000.

A Mayo Clinic spokesman said he could not provide any information on the stage of Powell’s cancer or any other details about the operation.

During his tenure, Powell has been rated as moderately conservative, with a judicial record near the court’s philosophical center. Speculation that he would soon retire from the court had heightened during the 1984 election campaign, when attention focused on the fact that five members of the court would be over the age of 75 when the newly elected President took office--providing a likely opportunity for several appointments to the court during his four-year term.

The two justices older than Powell are William J. Brennan Jr., who is 78, and Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, 77, who was born two days before Powell.