Giuliani Has Prostate Cancer, Senate Bid Unsure

NEW YORK, April 27 – Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani announced today that he is suffering from prostate cancer and said treatment of the disease could force him to take time off from City Hall and possibly endanger his Senate bid against Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The revelation stunned the New York political world and came just one day after Giuliani was spotted leaving Manhattan's Mount Sinai Hospital, where he learned the results of a biopsy that he said revealed "a very, very early stage of the disease." A range of treatments are available, and the head of oncology at Mount Sinai, Michael Droller, said Giuliani's cancer is "curable" and his prognosis "excellent."

But the disclosure of a cancerous condition called into question Giuliani's political status. While advisers sought to assure voters that the campaign is going forward, speculation flew yesterday that he may have to withdraw from the Senate race and leave Republicans, at the eleventh hour, without a strong candidate to lead their high-stakes battle to stop Clinton.

GOP leaders have seen Giuliani, the 55-year-old two-term mayor and former mob-busting federal prosecutor, as the perfect political colossus to take on the first lady. But today the often brash, take-charge mayor acknowledged that he had no firm answers about his future, and he would not outline a time frame for making decisions about his medical and political course.

"I hope that I'll be able to run," said Giuliani, "but the choice that I'm going to make about treatment will be contingent upon the treatment that gives me the best opportunity to have a full and complete cure and then, after I determine that, then I will figure out does it make sense to run this year or doesn't it or whatever."

He added: "There are different forms of treatment; they extend over different periods of time. I think it's probably too early to discuss it. Would I have to take time off from the job? Or from running? Yeah, probably. Sure. I don't think significant, like months and months, but some forms of treatment would require taking some time off."

Approximately 180,400 Americans will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year. It is the second most frequently fatal malignancy in U.S. men, kiling 31,900 each year.

It is curable if caught early and if it has not spread beyond the prostate, the apricot-sized gland involved in semen production. The major decision faced by patients with early prostate cancer is whether to undergo surgery or radiation therapy. Both forms of treatment can cure most men who have early, small tumors. However, recovery after surgery is generally slower, and some men suffer from impotence or urinary incontinence after the operation.

"He's young and presumably with localized disease," said Patrick Walsh, urologist-in-chief at Johns Hopkins University Hospital. "You can recover from surgery quite quickly today. Within three weeks, you're really back doing many things."

Giuliani's father died from the disease in 1981, before medical advances increased its detection and curability. Giuliani reflected on his loss while discussing his own situation. "It brings up very painful memories, and I miss my father every day of my life," he said.

Donna Hanover, Giuliani's wife, who was not with him as he spoke today, said in a statement that she was "very optimistic about Rudy's recovery."

Shortly after Giuliani dropped his bombshell, his campaign staff swung into action, assuring supporters and the press that the Senate campaign will go forward until further notice. It includes a dinner Friday night in Saratoga Springs, an appearance at an Independence Party conference in Buffalo on Saturday and a town hall meeting in Rochester next week.

Also today, Giuliani advisers were in Buffalo for a previously scheduled meeting with local Republican officials to firm up campaign strategy for the western New York region.

"We had our meeting and we're moving forward," said Bob Davis of Buffalo, the GOP chairman for Erie County. Of the cancer, he said, "It's very serious, no question about it. But it's also something that we can point to with case history after case history where you can come back from this thing very quickly."

Of the speculation that Giuliani would drop out of the race, George Arzt, a bipartisan political consultant, said, "I don't think he's the type of guy that backs off from a fight."

George W. Bush, the Republican presidential candidate, offered his "prayers" to Giuliani in a brief telephone conversation today and reported the mayor "feisty as ever" and "absolutely" remaining in the Senate race.

From her campaign trail in upstate New York, which included a televised town hall meeting of her own on Wednesday night in Buffalo, Clinton said in a statement: "Like all New Yorkers, my prayers and best wishes are with the mayor for a full and speedy recovery and I hope everyone joins me in wishing him well as he undergoes the treatment that is required."

The discovery of his cancer comes just over a month before the New York State Republican Committee's nominating convention on May 30, when Giuliani must be placed on the party ballot if he is to run in November. This technical fact means he has about a 30-day window to decide whether to remain the party's candidate.

If he becomes the official candidate but drops out later, none of the $19 million in direct contributions he has raised would be transferrable to a successor candidate, according to federal election law. But it will take days, if not a few weeks, for the Giuliani game plan to emerge.

"I think in fairness to me, to the Senate race, to the Republican Party, all the parties and everybody else, you need some time to think about it," the mayor said today.

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