Atwater Begins Radiation Therapy for Brain Cancer

Republican National Chairman Lee Atwater was admitted to New York’s Montefiore Medical Center Monday to undergo an innovative radiation treatment for brain cancer--a growth initially said to be non-malignant when Atwater’s illness first became known last month.

The 39-year-old Atwater, who became one of the country’s most controversial political advisers while managing President Bush’s drive for the White House, has “a small, treatable astrocytoma located in the right frontal lobe,” according to a statement released by Mary Matalin, the GOP national committee’s chief of staff.

Joann Schellenbach, a spokeswoman for the American Cancer Society in New York, said that astrocytomas are malignant growths, although usually not as aggressively malignant as other types of cancer. “Longtime survival is not uncommon,” she said.

But she also said that the most common treatment for astrocytomas is surgery, which Atwater’s physicians have so far ruled out in his case, presumably because of the location of the growth.

Instead, Atwater will undergo what Matalin described as “the most aggressive, concentrated state of the art method of radiation treatment available.” The procedure, which will be done under local anesthetic, involves inserting radioactive isotopes into the tumor. They remain implanted for five days.

Matalin said Atwater had chosen this course of treatment after consultations among brain tumor specialists resulted in “a consensus diagnosis” that Atwater’s tumor “has the potential to behave aggressively.”

Results of the procedure will not be known for eight to 12 weeks.

“During this difficult time . . . our hearts go out to him and to that wonderful family of his,” President Bush said during a political speech in Cincinnati.

“I know I speak for all when I say we wish him the best at this very difficult time,” Bush said. “It’s important that Lee get well. That’s exactly what he intends to do, given that fighting spirit.”

Atwater collapsed while addressing a breakfast meeting March 6 and was hospitalized. He was released three days later and since then has maintained a limited work schedule with no travel. Last week, for example, his absence was noted at a gathering of Southern Republican leaders in Raleigh, N.C. Atwater had worked closely with many of the leaders on his way up the political ladder from serving as an aide to Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) to the top post in his party.

In a statement released Monday, Dr. Edward Laws, the neurosurgeon treating Atwater, said that “no surgery is planned, and we expect no difficulty with follow-up treatments.”

The national committee press release Monday included a statement attributed to Dr. Paul L. Kornblith, chairman of neurological surgery at Montefiore, who said: “Mr. Atwater’s age and excellent physical condition, together with the early diagnosis of the tumor, its size and location, offer favorable circumstances for successful results.”