Chemotherapy Treatments Are Put on Hold for Mantle

Doctors are trying to keep Mickey Mantle pain-free and they’ve suspended chemotherapy treatments to fight the cancer spreading through the baseball Hall of Famer, a hospital spokeswoman said Friday.

“Right now, he’s pretty weak, so anything beyond just pain treatment would be difficult to try,” said Denise Kile Walton of Baylor University Medical Center. “We’re trying to let him rest and we’re observing him closely.”

Walton said no chemotherapy treatments are scheduled even though the cancer has spread into Mantle’s abdomen. A close friend, attorney Roy True, had said a new cancer-fighting method was to have begun Friday.

“That’s not going to be starting today,” Walton said. “I don’t think [it will start] any time soon. . . . I don’t think they’re considering it.”

Mantle, 63, remains in serious condition. He has been diagnosed with hepatoma, an aggressive form of cancer.

Walton said all treatment decisions are “very much a day-to-day situation.”

Former teammate Bill (Moose) Skowron, who along with Whitey Ford, Hank Bauer, Bobby Richardson and Johnny Blanchard visited Mantle on Thursday, said, “He’s fighting. He won’t give up.”