Tower Undergoes Surgery for Colon Polyp

John Tower, the 63-year-old former Texas senator named to be President-elect Bush’s defense secretary, Thursday underwent three hours of surgery at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas to remove a polyp from his colon, hospital officials said.

The operation, which went “exceedingly well” according to a hospital spokesman, followed a Dec. 27 procedure in which a rectal polyp that was malignant was removed from the senator.

Tower is in “fair condition, resting comfortably,” said Baylor spokesman Steve Habgood. He said that Tower is “expected to make a a full recovery.”

Preliminary tests on the polyp removed Thursday indicated that it was benign.

Uses Assumed Name

Tower, who has served as one of the nation’s top arms control negotiators, was admitted to the hospital Wednesday under an assumed name to protect his privacy, Habgood said. The surgery was performed by Dr. R. D. Dignan, a colon-rectal surgeon at Baylor, the nation’s second-largest private hospital.

Tower’s presence at the hospital was known only to a handful of medical center personnel, none of them in the admissions or public information departments, Habgood said.

Friends said that Tower does not appear to have known of the rectal or colon condition before late December, and it could not be determined immediately how the problem was discovered. However, the colon polyp was apparently found by doctors during the rectal procedure.

Controversial Choice

Bush announced his selection of Tower as defense secretary on Dec. 16 after a weeks-long process in which transition officials investigated the background of the controversial Republican. Tower’s candidacy for the top Pentagon post had been dogged by reports of alcoholism and womanizing, though Bush, in naming Tower, called the reports groundless.

Although the colon polyp appeared to be benign, final test results are not expected before Saturday. The rectal polyp removed Dec. 27 was found to contain “some malignant but well-differentiated cells,” according to Habgood, indicating that it was found in the early stages of malignancy.

Searches for Deputy

A friend of the senator’s said that Tower had worked “virtually up to the time he left Washington Wednesday” on the search for a deputy defense secretary, and added that Tower was “very upbeat” about his prognosis.

In July, 1985, President Reagan had a cancerous tumor removed from his colon, and in January, 1986, had three benign polyps removed from the same area.