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Senator McCain to Undergo Prostate Surgery

Aired August 28, 2001 - 15:13   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: We have more now on the condition of Senator John McCain, whom we reported a short while ago will check into the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona tomorrow and undergo minor prostate surgery on Thursday. Let's go to our Congressional correspondent, CNN's Kate Snow, who's on Capitol Hill with more about his condition -- Kate?

KATE SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Natalie, let's be very clear, first off, the senator is in fine shape, I'm told. In fact, he's flying from Prague in the Czech Republic, in Eastern Europe, back here to the United States. He's going to be flying into Arizona later on tonight. I'm told by people who have been with him as he's been on a trip through Eastern Europe that he is vigorous, that he's his normal self and that he feels absolutely fine.

What he's going to undergo on Thursday morning, they say, is a very minor surgery and one that is quite common among men his age. What they discovered during a routine checkup to check on the cancer that he has had in the past -- you'll remember that Senator McCain had some skin cancer, some melanoma, about a year ago was his last treatment for that. So every quarter they check him to make sure the cancer has gone away.

Indeed, the cancer has gone away. He's been clear of cancer now for four checkups in a row. But when they checked him a couple of weeks ago they did notice something else, and that was that his prostate had gotten enlarged and it was pressing on his bladder. So that's something that they need to take care of. They're going to go in and remove part of the prostate on Thursday morning. Again, I'm told it's relatively minor. He will be in the hospital in the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona for about one or two days, at which time he'll go home to Arizona, rest up over the weekend, and then, Natalie, hopes to be back here in Washington back at work as the Senate comes back next week after the August recess -- Natalie.

ALLEN: Kate, do you know if he is ending his travels because of this or was this all planned on a schedule?

SNOW: My sense is that this was all planned. I did ask one source that I talked to why he hadn't come forward with it, and was told that they were planning on putting out a statement tomorrow morning, it's just that we sort of beat them to the punch. So apparently, you know, this was all on his schedule and he did intend to have this surgery, and again, they say it's really not that big of a deal.

ALLEN: All right, Kate Snow on Capitol Hill. Thank you.

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