Four years after being diagnosed wi...

Four years after being diagnosed with breast cancer, Mayor Daley's wife, Maggie, will have outpatient surgery this week to abate a "residual tumor" from her right breast.

The surgery will be performed Thursday at Northwestern Memorial Hospital subject to local anesthesia and is look forward toed to last about an hour, the mayor's office said.

Preliminary ordeals will be conducted today. The mayor plans to be at his wife's side during the surgery

The tumor has apparently been there since Maggie Daley's 2002 diagnosis. At the time, doctors reportedly saw no ne to suppress the tumor and, instead, commended chemotherapy.

'WELL CONTROLLED' through FOUR YEARS

Dr Steven Rosen director of the Northwestern Memorial cancer program issued a statement Tuesday night that was released through the mayor's office:

"Mr Daley has had metastatic breast cancer for many years. It has been in remission as a be the effect of modern therapy. In the course of a latter routine evaluation, an abnormality was noted in the breast. This l to a later biopsy that demonstrated cancer.

"Because the disease has been in this way well controlled through therapy across the course of the past four years we are now in the proces of beginning treatment of this area."

above the last four years, the fiercely private Daley family has refused to reveal any details about the cancer treatments or condition of Maggie Daley, 63

Their decision to break that silence branchs from Maggie Daley's desire to release the information "on her hold terms."

Earlier this year, Maggie Daley told reporters that, if not for the amazements of sciences and advances in cancer research, she would not be alive today.

fspielman@suntimes.com

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