Dannemeyer Has Surgery for Melanoma

Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton) underwent outpatient surgery last week to have a malignant melanoma removed from his left ear.

Dannemeyer’s press secretary, Paul Mero, said Tuesday that the congressman would undergo hyperthermia infrared light treatments on the ear for about 5 weeks.

“From what the congressman has told me, it’s a serious kind of skin cancer,” Mero said. “He takes it seriously.” And, he said, Dannemeyer “still runs the chance it will recur.”

Nonetheless, Mero said Dannemeyer is “just fine. He was on the (House) floor where everybody could see him. He was just as mean as ever.”

Indeed, Dannemeyer this week was a key player in forcing House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.) to allow a House vote on the controversial 50% pay raise for Congress. On Monday, Dannemeyer insisted on a roll-call vote on adjournment and then announced that the vote would be construed as a test of sentiment on the pay raise. When the motion for adjournment failed, Wright yielded to those who wanted a vote on the pay proposal, which was overwhelmingly defeated Tuesday.

Hours after his surgery last week, Dannemeyer was back at his desk in his district office in Fullerton. He returned to Washington on Sunday.

Dannemeyer noticed an unusual scab on his ear about a month ago, said Mero, who initially thought his boss had “bonked his head” at home. When the scab would not heal, Dannemeyer saw a physician, and the cancer was discovered.

Mero, noting that Dannemeyer is an avid tennis player, said, “I think it was the nice California sun you guys have.”

Malignant melanoma, which sometimes occurs in those who have had prolonged exposure to the sun, is treatable if detected early, said Dr. Matthew M. Goodman, co-director of UC Irvine’s Melanoma Center. The seriousness of the cancer is dependent on its thickness at the time it is diagnosed and removed, Goodman said.

“The deeper it is, the more likely it will spread internally,” he said. “The thinner it is, the better the chances of complete cure.”

Goodman said that if the disease spreads internally, “it’s difficult to treat.” Told the thickness of Dannemeyer’s melanoma, Goodman said his chances of a full cure were probably more than 90%.