Atwater’s Tumor ‘Aggressive’; Doctor Orders Chemotherapy

The doctor treating Lee Atwater for a brain tumor said Wednesday the growth is “aggressive and dangerous,” and will require chemotherapy in addition to radiation treatment.

In a statement issued through Republican Party headquarters, Dr. Paul L. Kornblith said that working in Atwater’s favor were the facts that he was in excellent health and “the lesion is quite small and has been detected early in its development.”

Atwater, the Republican National Committee chairman, was in Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, where a team of physicians led by Kornblith implanted radioactive isotopes into the tumor Tuesday in an effort to kill the growth on the right frontal lobe of Atwater’s brain.

“The procedure took approximately four hours and was uneventful,” Kornblith said. He added that it was completed “without apparent impairment” to any neurological functions.

“Although it is obvious this tumor is aggressive and dangerous, Mr. Atwater has many factors working in his favor,” he said.

Party chief of staff Mary Matalin said the radioactive device would be removed on Friday, and that recuperation was expected to take several weeks.

Kornblith said that “in order to assure that any tumor cells peripheral to the main lesion are destroyed, he will be receiving chemotherapy as well. This particular form of chemotherapy is given orally once every six weeks and will not limit his activities or functions.”