Colombia’s Santos has prostate-cancer surgery

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has undergone successful surgery for prostate cancer, according to his doctors.
 
Santos’ urologist, Felipe Gomez, who directed the operation, said on Wednesday the findings made during were “consistent with pre-surgical studies” and that the patient was conscious at all times.
 
“We had no problems with bleeding or with findings that we had not expected,” Gomez said.

Santos was in his room recuperating under medical supervision, he said.

The doctor said that Santos, who had only local anaesthetic and therefore remained able to continue in his role as president, was to remain in hospital “two or three days”.

Santos had appeared optimistic on Wednesday, just hours earlier.

“As they say, the time has come,” Santos said as he entered the Bogota hospital where the operation took place.

“Everything is going to go very well.”

Detected ‘very early’

Santos, 61, announced on Monday that he had been diagnosed with cancer.

He said he would undergo an operation to remove a small, non-aggressive tumour but that it had been detected “very early”, and his chances of recovery were “97 per cent”.

Santos, who has been in office since August 2010, is due to begin peace talks with left-wing rebel group FARC on October 15.

His doctor said before the operation that the president would have recovered “in around three weeks”, adding that his health was “excellent”.

His condition would not require chemotherapy, Gomez said.

The Colombian president is the latest in a string of South American presidents to suffer cancer, including Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.