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President undergoes cancer surgery
May 1, 2009
by Carole Bass '83, '97MSL

President Rick Levin '74PhD underwent surgery for prostate cancer Thursday and has handed off his duties to provost Peter Salovey '86PhD and vice president and secretary Linda Lorimer '77JD while he recuperates.

Calling the surgery "successful," Lorimer wrote in an e-mail to senior Yale officials: "The prognosis is excellent, but the doctors have told him to stay out of the office for approximately three weeks. ... Rick expects to be back in action by Commencement; for now we have confiscated his Blackberry!"

Salovey will handle "all academic and budgetary issues," with Lorimer "responsible for other institutional matters," she wrote. Lorimer, who couldn't be reached for comment, told the Yale Daily News that the cancer "was caught very early." University spokeswoman Helaine Klasky added that Levin -- who just turned 62 -- was diagnosed during a routine physical in the past month.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among American men, striking an estimated 186,320 and killing 28,660 in 2008, according to the American Cancer Society [PDF]. A man in his 60s has a 1 in 15 chance of getting the disease. Fortunately, it's very often beatable.

More than 90 percent of all prostate cancers are discovered before they spread to distant parts of the body, and for those patients, the five-year survival rate "approaches 100 percent," the Cancer Society reports. What's more, the five-year survival rate for all prostate cancers has climbed from 69 percent to almost 99 percent in the past 25 years. At ten and fifteen years out, survival rates are 91 percent and 76 percent respectively.