President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina has thyroid cancer and will undergo surgery on January 4,her spokesman said Wednesday. Alfredo Scoccimarro,the presidential spokesman,said that doctors detected the cancer during a medical examination Thursday. He said there was no existence of metastasis, suggesting that Kirchners chances could be strong for a recovery. The announcement comes less than two months after Kirchner,58,glided to a re-election victory for a new four-year term. Argentina was rocked last year by the death of Kirchners husband,Néstor,at age 60 from a heart attack. Kirchner had preceded her as president. Kirchners illness is sure to reignite talk in the region about how various leaders have recently handled the disclosure of cancer diagnoses. The usual treatment is to surgically remove as much of the cancerous material as possible,and then follow up with radioactive iodide treatments,taken orally. This substance helps to destroy any remnants of the cancerous gland and provide for clearer images showing any additional cancer. After surgery,patients usually must take medicine,levothyroxine sodium,for the rest of their lives to replace a hormone that the thyroid glands produce. Others who have been stricken with cancer in Latin America include Brazils former president,Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva,who is being treated for throat cancer,and his successor,President Dilma Rousseff,who was treated for lymphoma. Paraguays president,Fernando Lugo,has also been treated in Brazil for non-Hodgkins lymphoma. President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela went into a long stretch of seclusion in Cuba this year before announcing in June that he had undergone surgery there for cancer. The papillary thyroid carcinoma found in Kirchner is a common type of cancer,often beginning as a small bump in the thyroid gland in the neck,and survival rate is high. Scoccimarro said that Kirchner would return to the presidency on January 24.
