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Mr. [Paul E. Tsongas] and his doctors could have summarized the 15 or so volumes of his medical records and issued a document to serve as a standard reference. But Tak Takvorian, Mr. Tsongas's personal doctor, said a one-and-a-half-page summary of Mr. Tsongas's complicated case that he prepared for the campaign was not released. Mr. Tsongas said he did not know why the summary had not been made public. Dr. Takvorian said his team told Mr. Tsongas that it was cancer. But the numerous accounts of Mr. Tsongas's case make it unclear what the doctors actually told him and what he heard them say. In interviews, Mr. Tsongas said the additional radiation treatment was a preventive measure and that he did not remember being told the node was cancerous. Such confidentiality is designed to protect patients, not doctors. On broader terms, the Tsongas story raises questions about the credibility of doctors in dealing with cancer patients. Instead of helping Mr. Tsongas battle job discrimination as a cancer survivor, the [Dana-Farber] officials have added to it. Mr. Tsongas might have been better off if had he been able to follow the example of [Franklin D. Roosevelt]

Yesterday, Gina Vild, a spokeswoman for [Dana-Farber], said that doctors detected the lymph node about four months after the transplant and watched it until a biopsy was done. The pathologist's report, dated July 15, 1987, said the node was 'non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, nodular and diffuse, poorly differentiated lymphocytic type, or small cleaved follicular center cell type.' Dana-Farber issued a news release yesterday saying that the facts about Mr. [Paul E. Tsongas]'s case were 'previously on the record.' But previous reports did not say the lymph node was a lymphoma, only that there were suspicious or potentially cancerous cells. He also said that his request may set a precedent that could make some doctors 'uncomfortable.' But he added, 'There will be no other way to lay this matter to rest.'

BOSTON - Contrary to their earlier assurances, Paul Tsongas' doctors now say that he suffered a recurrence of lymphoma in 1987, less than a year after undergoing an experimental bone marrow transplant, and was treated with an additional course of radiation. Tsongas' personal doctor, Tak Takvorian, said his team told Tsongas the 1987 biopsy of the lymph node showed lymphoma. Takvorian also said he advised Tsongas not to provide the voluminous pages of his medical records to reporters, and those records were not released. One reason, Takvorian said, was that medical thinking about the treatment for lymphoma had changed significantly in recent years

Mr. [Paul E. Tsongas]'s personal doctor, Tak Takvorian, who cared for Mr. Tsongas during and after his bone marrow transplant, said his team had told Mr. Tsongas the biopsy of the lymph node showed lymphoma. 'We never do otherwise,' Dr. Takvorian said. 'He wasn't being duped.' Dr. Takvorian, who was an ardent supporter of Mr. Tsongas's campaign and who had Tsongas campaign posters in his office, said in a recent interview that he had not disclosed all the details of Mr. Tsongas's medical history in a three-hour interview in February because it would take too much time, was not relevant, and was of little interest. Mr. Tsongas is a trustee of the [Dana-Farber] Cancer Institute; officials there have allowed only Dr. Takvorian and Dr. George P. Canellos, the institute's head of oncology, to talk about Mr. Tsongas's care

[Paul Tsongas], who is the first known cancer survivor to run for president, has remained free of lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system, for five years. Two doctors who treated him at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston have said that, if elected, Tsongas has a favorable prognosis for living out his term and that his health was not a factor in the suspension last month of his campaign for the Democratic nomination for president. Until the disclosure, which came to light after further inquiries by the New York Times about Tsongas's condition, the doctors had said Tsongas had been free of disease since the transplant in 1986. Tsongas's personal doctor, Tak Takvorian, who cared for Tsongas during and after his bone marrow transplant, said his team told Tsongas that the biopsy of the lymph node showed lymphoma

'There was improvement from last week, but he still has some swelling of his vocal cords,' Dr. [James Suen] said. George Stephanopoulos, Mr. [Bill Clinton]'s deputy campaign manager, said: 'The doctor simply said if you go to work tomorrow, you undermine four days of rest. If you take one more day off, it's all the difference.' 'The noisier the background environment, the more we tend to raise our voices to hear ourselves talk, and we don't even realize it,' said Dr. David R. Edelstein, an ear, nose and throat specialist in New York

The manner in which tennis star Arthur Ashe is believed to have contracted the AIDS virus through a blood transfusion is discussed

After years of increasing frankness between doctor and patient, Alzheimer's disease may be the last taboo. People who learned long ago to speak frankly about cancer, AIDS and a host of other medical problems still cannot bear to acknowledge that a relative has Alzheimer's or another dementing disease. There are problems because Alzheimer's is widely considered to be the last medical taboo. Many affected people keep silent about Alzheimer's, just as years ago others refused to say they had cancer. In the United States, many Alzheimer families now say a relative has cancer because they perceive cancer to be a more socially acceptable diagnosis. In fact, at families' requests, a San Francisco clinic devoted to memory and Alzheimer's removed the word 'Alzheimer's' from a sign over its door

Doctors ran tests and told him he had two options: to wait and watch, or to undergo surgery to find out what was wrong. [Arthur Ashe] chose brain surgery. The diagnosis was an abscess caused by a parasitic infection, toxoplasmosis. The brain infection explained the temporary paralysis of his hand and also was a clue to a more devastating underlying problem: AIDS. A few days later, blood tests confirmed that indeed Ashe was infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Together with the parasitic infection, that meant a diagnosis of AIDS. Since the diagnosis was made, Ashe has taken AZT to fight HIV infection, antibiotics to keep the toxoplasmosis in check and aerosolized pentamidine to help prevent another infection, pneumocystis carinii pneumonia

The physician, Dr. Burton Lee III, said in an interview that [Bush] needed a place where he 'can go for a few days of peace and quiet so his engine can come back in balance from the incredible pace that he normally keeps.' Lee said the president was not depressed or stressed out. He said Bush 'handles stress far better than the rest of us.' Nevertheless, he said, 'the stress of the job has to get to him, and it is my job to see that it does not get to him in a way that it is bothersome to him in his functioning.' Lee said he doubted that Bush would accept the prescription, particularly in an election year and when the country is in economic trouble. 'That has a bad image,' Lee said