Doctors Have a Tense Debate: Reagan ‘Has’ or ‘Had’ Cancer?

When Dr. Steven Rosenberg earlier this week announced the results of the pathology report from President Reagan’s colon surgery, he declared: “The President has cancer.”

A subsequent statement that, as far as doctors can tell, Reagan’s cancer had not spread--has raised questions about why he used the present tense, “has cancer,” rather than “had.”

Rosenberg now has been asked by the White House not to discuss the case with reporters, so it is not possible to learn what prompted his choice of words.

But, when reporters at Monday’s news briefing asked whether Reagan “had” or “has” cancer, Rosenberg replied indirectly: “The tumor specimen that was removed from the President contained cancer. There is greater than a 50% chance that the President now has no cancer whatsoever . . . . However, there is a chance that the tumor may recur at some time in the future.”

Three of four nationally known cancer experts interviewed by The Times disagreed with Rosenberg’s wording, saying that they would have announced that Reagan “had cancer.” The other opted for “has cancer.”

When talking to patients whose cancer may or may not have spread, both Drs. Donald Morton and Kenneth Ramming, professors of surgery at UCLA Medical School, said they do not use the present tense.

“My style is to say that he or she had a cancer and, thank goodness, we were there in time,” Ramming said.

Similarly, Dr. John Bond, chief of gastrointestinal surgery at the Minneapolis Veterans Administration Hospital, said, “I say the patient had cancer but that there may be cancer that was not entirely removed.”

But Dr. Glenn Steele, chairman of the National Colorectal Organ Site Program and a Harvard University surgery professor, tells patients they “have cancer.” Steele explained that he uses the present tense as a means of emphasizing the importance of follow-up examinations.