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Brazilian vice president undergoes intestinal surgery
[July 09, 2009]

Brazilian vice president undergoes intestinal surgery


RIO DE JANEIRO, Jul 09, 2009 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Brazilian Vice President Jose Alencar on Thursday underwent a surgery at a Sao Paulo hospital to remove some tumors, his doctors said.

The surgery, which lasted six hours, was successful, said his doctors, noting several tumors which obstructed his small intestine were removed.

The surgery lasted longer than the initially estimated three to four hours due to the large number of tumors to be removed, said the doctors. "A total of 18" tumors were removed, they added.



Alencar is now acting president as President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was on an overseas trip.

So far, Alencar has undergone 14 surgeries, five of them following the discovery of small intestine cancer in 2006. He also had tumors removed from his kidneys, stomach and prostate. In January, he had a 17-hour-long operation during which nine tumors were removed.

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