Tipper Gore Has Surgery to Remove Thyroid Nodule

Tipper Gore, wife of the vice president, had surgery Tuesday to remove a suspicious nodule from her thyroid gland, Vice President Al Gore’s office announced.

The nodule is to be examined for possible signs of cancer, but the results are not expected until next week, said Camille Johnston, Mrs. Gore’s press secretary.

Mrs. Gore, 51, was resting comfortably after the two-hour procedure at the Johns Hopkins University Medical Center in Baltimore, Johnston said. She remained in the hospital overnight, and the vice president also spent the night there, according to a statement released by his office late Tuesday.

The nodule was discovered a couple of months ago during an examination of a chronic exercise-related injury in Mrs. Gore’s neck, Johnston said.

“It wasn’t something that was found yesterday,” she said. “The surgery was recommended as a precautionary measure.”

The Gores returned to Washington from Tennessee on Monday night after spending several days over the Christmas holidays with their extended family on their farm in Carthage.

Mrs. Gore is expected to be released today. The operation was performed by Dr. Robert Udelsman, a top Johns Hopkins endocrinologist.

Although Gore’s office said Tuesday that Mrs. Gore’s test results will not be available until next week, the Johns Hopkins Thyroid Tumor Center Internet page, describing procedures at the facility, said: “In the space of a morning, for example, patients with a thyroid nodule can get a physician’s evaluation, imaging, and a needle biopsy and receive results within 48 hours.”

Officials at Johns Hopkins referred all questions to Gore’s office.

But after Mrs. Gore’s admission, the hospital updated its Internet page (https://hopkins.med.jhu.edu/) with information on thyroid conditions and thyroid cancer.

The thyroid gland secretes hormones into the bloodstream to stimulate cells in the body.

Most thyroid nodules are benign. The incidence of thyroid cancer is 5.8 cases per 100,000 women and 2.4 cases per 100,000 men, according to the hospital’s Internet site.

In treating thyroid cancer, “surgeons remove the thyroid gland and follow with a dose of radioactive iodine designed to destroy lingering cells,” the online paper stated.

It was also unclear Tuesday precisely how long Mrs. Gore’s surgery had been planned. In an interview, Johnston said that Mrs. Gore’s operation was scheduled after the nodule was discovered “a couple of months ago.”

But the vice president gave no hint of the medical procedure only a week ago while campaigning in Iowa, when he reassured reporters covering his campaign that they should expect no news until he resumes campaigning in early January.

The Gores are not strangers to Johns Hopkins. The couple’s son, Albert III, was treated there in 1989 after suffering life-threatening injuries when he was struck by a car in a parking lot after a Baltimore Orioles baseball game.