Nixon Has Surgery for Skin Cancer Behind Ear

Former President Richard M. Nixon had a cancerous tumor removed from behind his left ear a week ago, his doctor said today.

Nixon walked out of New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center hospital after the four-hour surgery and returned to his home in Saddle River, N.J.

Dr. Philip Prioleau of Cornell Medical Center said he removed the tumor from behind the former President’s ear last Thursday.

Prioleau said that the tumor, a basal cell carcinoma, was similar to but much more advanced than the one removed from President Reagan’s nose last week and that he decided to remove it because it was getting close to the bone.

The tumor, an inch in diameter, is a common kind of skin cancer that “virtually never spreads” to other organs and its chances of recurring are small, Prioleau said.

“The cancer has been totally removed,” Prioleau said. “He (Nixon) has been on coumadin (a blood thinner used in the treatment of phlebitis) for many years, and we had stopped it for the surgery. When we resumed, the wound began to bleed,” Dr. Prioleau said.

On Wednesday, Prioleau swathed Nixon’s head in bandages because of profuse bleeding over the last several days.

The doctor said he removed a piece of skin from Nixon’s left shoulder and grafted it over the area where the tumor was removed.

Because of the continued bleeding, Nixon was ordered by his doctor to cancel a Wednesday night trip to Washington to attend a party in his honor at the Chinese Embassy.

Nixon attended a baseball game at Yankee Stadium on Sunday.

Prioleau stressed that the form of cancer involved is “very mild” but said, “I’m going to be seeing him (Nixon) frequently.”

Nixon was hospitalized with a severe phlebitis attack shortly after he resigned from the presidency in 1974. He also suffered a recent shingles condition on his back.