Supreme Court's Ginsburg to undergo chemotherapy

By James Vicini

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the lone woman on the nine-member court, said on Tuesday she would undergo chemotherapy after her surgery for pancreatic cancer.

"I am scheduled to undergo a precautionary, post-surgery course of chemotherapy at the National Institutes of Health," Ginsburg, 76, said in a statement released by the court.

"The treatments, which will commence in late March, are not expected to affect my schedule at the court. Thereafter, it is anticipated that I will require only routine examinations to assure my continuing good health."

The liberal Ginsburg was appointed to the court in 1993 by Democratic President Bill Clinton. She had colon cancer in 1999 and was treated with chemotherapy and radiation at that time.

Her pancreatic cancer surgery last month raised questions about how much longer she will stay in her job and when President Barack Obama might get his first chance to make an appointment to the nation's highest court.

In an interview with USA Today a month after her surgery, Ginsburg said she expects to be on the court for several more years.

Ginsburg said in the statement she underwent "a complete, successful, surgical removal of a pancreatic cancer" on February 5 at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City."

Doctors removed a small malignant lesion from her pancreas. All lymph nodes proved negative for cancer and no metastasis was found, according to an earlier statement from the court.

After consulting with doctors Eileen O'Reilly and Leonard Saltz of the New York-based cancer center, Ginsburg said she would undergo the chemotherapy treatment.

(Editing by Deborah Charles and Alan Elsner)