You need to say “The President does not have cancer.” That’s what Ronald Reagan’s chief surgeon was told as the president’s team finished a procedure to remove a cancerous polyp removed from his colon. It was 1985 and Reagan was in the fourth year of his presidency. The cancer was discovered during a routine colonoscopy. A leading figure in the country’s medical community recently told the story to SurvivorNet. And wow, it is not easy being a white coat at a podium.
As the story goes, a team of surgeons had been assembled and a major figure from the country’s medical establishment was brought in to supervise the operation. The team was apparently close to 12 people strong. Recalling the event, our source told us that only about three or four of the team actually scrubbed in, but everybody was in the room while they were operating on the President. Two Navy surgeons actually did the operation.
Read MoreAccording to the source with whom SurvivorNet spoke, the political guys kept saying, “Do not say the President has cancer.” A directive that was repeated half a dozen times.
Then, this esteemed doctor was dragged out in front of the lights and put behind a podium. His surgical hat sort of fell down in his face. He had to straighten it out and then he’s just standing there with all these lights. He can’t see the audience. They prod him, “You can start your statement.” He’s got these teleprompters and stuff. He’s not used to reading the teleprompters. Then they said, “Start your statement.”
He says, “The President has cancer.”
The Value of Early Detection
There was a good chance that President Regan would be completely cured, since the cancer stayed in the colon and had not penetrated the bowel wall or any surrounding nerves or lymph nodes. To this day, for colon cancers that are diagnosed in stage one meaning cancer has not penetrated deeper layers of the colon and has not spread surgery is the best and most effective option.
President Reagan lived to the age of 93 years, before passing away in 2004.
Related: Can Viagra Save You from Colon Cancer Death? The Answer is….Maybe
Currently, the American Cancer Society recommends that people with an average risk of developing colon cancer begin getting regular colonoscopies at age 45. If you have a higher risk, because colon cancer runs in your family or because of certain lifestyle risks, your doctor may recommend you begin getting colonoscopies earlier.
The benefit of colonoscopies is that cancer can be detected before it even begins to grow, according to Dr. Zuri Murrell, a colorectal cancer surgeon and Director of the Cedars-Sinai Colorectal Cancer Center.
"It's always my goal, and I think the goal of every colorectal surgeon, to basically end the disease," says Dr. Murrell. “A colonoscopy is a way to actually look in the colon. And all colon cancer starts as these small growths called polyps, and these polyps have no signs, no symptoms. The only way you can know you have them is if you do a colonoscopy, and you see them. And you take them out during that procedure, and if you do that, those cannot grow into a colon cancer."
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