/ 20 October 1999

TUTU TO UNDERGO NEW TESTS

ARCHIBISHOP Desmond Tutu is to be admitted to hospital in Atlanta in the United States on Thursday for tests to determine new treatment for prostate cancer, he said in a statement on Tuesday. Recent tests in Atlanta have indicated that his prostate cancer, first diagnosed and treated in 1997, has recurred. “I understand this is a fairly normal occurrence two years after radiation treatment,” Archbishop Tutu said in a statement from Atlanta. “On Thursday I will have an operation to determine whether the cancer has spread beyond the prostate gland. If it is confined to the prostate, I expect to undergo cryosurgery — a technique in which the affected tissue is frozen with liquid nitrogen.” “But I am feeling fine,” he said.