Mrs. Reagan Treated for Breast Cancer

WASHINGTON--Doctors told President and Nancy Reagan yesterday that the final tests from her breast cancer surgery show there has been no spread of her cancer and that the "prognosis for full recovery is excellent," a White House spokesman said.

"Mrs. Reagan is recovering remarkably well from surgery," Reagan's physician John Hutton said in a statement Hutton said Mrs. Reagan's 12-physician team is "completely satisfied with her progress in every respect."

The president traveled by helicopter to Bethesda Naval Medical Center early yesterday morning to await the final test results from Saturday's surgery.

Hutton's statement, distributed by White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater, said the first lady "feels good and her vital signs are strong and stable." It said Mrs. Reagan was feeling "very little pain" and was receiving a mild analgesic medication to deal with it.

Hutton's statement said, "Final laboratory analysis of tissue and lymph nodes removed during Saterday's surgery confirm there is no further malignancy or evidence of other disease.

"No further treatment is expected, other than normal routine examinations. Mrs. Reagan's prognosis for full recovery is excellent," the statement added.

The first couple received the news about the final tests at midmorning, then spent time looking at the flowers that had been sent to the first lady and the get-well cards that have been pouring in, Fitzwater said.

Mrs. Reagan felt well enough the morning after her surgery to walk around her suite and to have a full breakfast of juice, papaya, bran cereal and decaffeinated coffee, the spokesman said.

The couple planned to have lunch before the president returned to the White House later in the afternoon, he added.

The Reagans telephoned Chip and Reba Gayle McClure, the parents of Jessica McClure, to "express their happiness at Jessica's rescue" from an abandoned well in Texas, Hutton's statement said.

Reagan, upon departure for Bethesda, carried a red, white and blue beribboned gift for the first lady, but steadfastly refused to divulge its contents, Fitzwater said. "He wouldn't tell me," what was in the package, the spokesman laughed.

"I've got a date with a girl out at Bethesda," Reagan called out to reporters as he left the White House to helicopter to the medical center in suburban Washington.

Doctors removed the first lady's left breast and several lymph nodes from under her arm on Saturday in a 50-minute operation following a needle biopsy that revealed a quarter-inch malignant tumor. The first indication of the lesion came Oct. 5 during Mrs. Reagan's annual mammography.

The White House declined on Saturday to offer any prognosis for Mrs. Reagan's recovery, but said she would spend five to seven days in all in the hospital.

The cancer was identified as a "non-invasive intraductal adenocarcinoma" which measured about 7 millimeters, in a statement issued by Reagan's personal physician, Dr. John E. Hutton.

White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said it was a common form of breast cancer that had not spread through the tissues.

Hutton's statement said that while preliminary laboratory tests showed the cancer had not spread to the lymph nodes or surrounding tissue, final laboratory analysis would be completed on Sunday.

Such tests on frozen sections of the lymph nodes are crucial, because the lymph nodes act as the body's filters for foreign matter such as cancer cells, and physicians look to them to determine whether the cancer has spread to other parts of the body.

Fitzwater said Reagan had told him prior to departure that "the doctors say her recovery is ahead of schedule. I'm anxious to see her."