Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was released from the hospital Friday after tests revealed that her cancer had not spread. Ginsburg had surgery a week ago to remove a tumor on her pancreas. Doctors say Ginsburg has a very good chance of recovery.

 

She plans to recuperate at her home in Washington and expects to be back at the court on Feb. 23, when the justices next hear oral arguments.

In January, the 75-year-old Supreme Court Justice was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer during a routine annual checkup carried out at the National Institute of Health’s Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

 

The lesion that led to the operation was found to be benign, but doctors discovered a smaller tumor that proved to be malignant. She was diagnosed with Stage 1 pancreatic cancer. In this situation, Ginsburg’s chances of survival could be better than 50%. In addition, doctors say that it is possible the justice may avoid chemotherapy because her tumor was small and the cancer didn’t spread to lymph nodes.

 

Justice Ginsburg was diagnosed with colon cancer 1999, underwent an operation and returned to the court without missing a single day of oral arguments.

 

Pancreatic cancer affects about 30,000 people each year. In most cases, the condition has no symptoms, which puts pancreatic cancer on the list of under-diagnosed conditions because they can be easily missed. There can be pain in the upper abdomen or back, loss of appetite and/or weight loss, nausea and vomiting, jaundice and weakness, but these are not specific symptoms to point on a certain disease. Statistics note that about 13 in every 100 people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer survive one year after diagnosis.