Faculty Bibliography

Peron was re-elected while Eva recuperated. Later, she resumed limited political activities. But when the abdominal pain returned in February, 1952, Argentine doctors confirmed, again without telling Eva, that the cancer had recurred very quickly. In lifting Eva's medical story from obscurity and reporting it in the June 3 issue of The Lancet, Barron Lerner, a medical historian and ethicist at Columbia University, has added new information to an earlier biography of Eva and a small number of articles about her illness in Argentine newspapers and medical journals

The Argentine and the United States governments apparently have not officially confirmed that [Eva Peron] had cervical cancer or that Dr. Pack performed the operation without her knowledge. State Department officials and the Argentine Embassy in Washington said they had no knowledge about Eva's case because it occurred so long ago. Dr. [Barron H. Lerner] said he did not try to examine Eva's medical records or government records. Eva's medical ordeal began in January 1950 when she was 30. She fainted and underwent an appendectomy. Despite persistent weakness and anemia from vaginal bleeding, she delayed further tests. In August 1951, Eva, much weaker, developed increasingly severe abdominal pain and fainted again. A physical showed she had advanced cancer of the cervix, and Argentine doctors treated her with radium, then a standard therapy. At the time, the Argentine government declined to disclose the nature of Eva's illness. Press reports gave conflicting views as to whether she had cancer. President Peron was re-elected while Eva recuperated from surgery. Later, she resumed limited political activities. But when the abdominal pain returned in February 1952, Argentine doctors confirmed, again without telling Eva, that the cancer had recurred with striking rapidity

Many doctors, particularly those in group practices, have a nurse tell patients what to expect in the recovery period. Even so, patients are often not told in advance that radiation also is needed in about 25 percent of men who had their prostates removed surgically because microscopic studies of the prostate found evidence of spread. In another 25 percent, a rise in PSA level in the five years after prostate removal leads to further therapy, usually with drugs to lower levels of male hormones to make the cancer shrink or grow more slowly. The alternatives include surgical removal of the prostate gland, radiation (delivered externally or implanted as 'seeds'), techniques to freeze and destroy the entire prostate, early hormonal therapy and watchful waiting. While there is no standard plan for such observation, it generally involves monitoring blood tests to determine if the prostate specific antigen level increases, rectal examinations to determine if prostate nodules develop and checking for developing symptoms. PHOTOS ; CHART ; ILLUSTRATION; Caption: New York City mayor [Rudolph Giuliani] recently was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Financial Michael Milken credits good nutrition with keeping his prostate cancer at bay. New York Yankees manager Joe Torre had his cancerous prostate removed in March 1999. Knight-Ridder Tribune; Keith Schiller of Highland Township, Mich., is returning to routine choosing radioactive 'seed' therapy to battle prostate cancer

I knocked on the door, entered and found Tito Puente alone. He seemed comfortable, but nervous. I told him that I had been sent to see him by his manager, who was a patient of mine. Tito nodded. He'd been expecting me, he said. He looked healthy; sometimes it was a matter of subtle perception to differentiate who needed an operation from who didn't. I went downstairs to speak with his relatives. They were holding a vigil near the elevators where families traditionally waited for the surgeon to bring them the news. In Tito's case, the surgeon was still in there with him, trying to treat the unforeseeable bleeding disorder. For almost 10 hours he'd been there with his patient, unwilling to take a break. I arrived there at the same time as the pizza man, bringing the family more sustenance than I could. 'It doesn't look good,' I said, something they already knew. I recognized Tito's daughter from the TV and, as she jounced up to pay the pizza man, I could again see her father's energy. I drew a picture of the heart and showed Tito where the valve was that was damaged. It was a straightforward operation to repair it and, if the vessels that fed the heart its blood and oxygen were blocked, a bypass operation would be performed at the same time. Tito was nervous about the operation. He was used to exerting maximal control over his life, his music. Now he would be handing all this over to a stranger, a man who, in a different world, was also a control artist, working long hours with maximal attention and focus, a man who was also known for his great hands