Odds look good for Leeson after bowel operation

DOCTORS HAVE given Nick Leeson, the rogue trader, a 70 per cent chance of surviving for another five years, after finding that the colon cancer diagnosed earlier this month has not spread to his lymph nodes.

Surgeons in Singapore removed a tumour after examining the former futures trader. Yesterday they said his condition was not as serious as had been feared.

As a result, Leeson - who is serving a six-and-a-half-year sentence for the financial scams that brought down Britain's oldest merchant bank, Barings Bank, in 1995 - will not need chemotherapy. However he faces a 30 per cent chance of his cancer recurring within the next two years, said his London solicitor Stephen Pollard.

Bowel cancer is the second major cause of cancer death in this country with about 50 people dying every day and about 30,000 people developing the disease each year.

Caught early the cure rate is as high as 90 per cent, but if colon cancer spreads to the lymph nodes, the survival rate goes down to 50 per cent.

Leeson was moved from his cell in Changi Prison, Singapore to a secure ward in a public hospital earlier this month after suffering acute stomach pains. He was diagnosed as having cancer of the colon on 5 August.

Four days later, surgeons at the hospital removed a tumour from Leeson's colon, and cut out part of his large intestine. Further examinations were made to determine whether the cancer had spread, and if more operations would be needed.

"The further diagnostic steps to be taken following Nick Leeson's operation ... have now been completed," said Mr Pollard yesterday.

"The surgeon believes that the cancer has, happily, not spread to the lymph nodes. No chemotherapy will therefore be necessary.

"This prognosis is not as good as we had hoped, nor as bad as we had feared, and Mr Leeson's family awaits keenly the decision on his possible early release."

Leeson's lawyers have applied on compassionate and medical grounds for him to serve out the remaining four years of his sentence in a British jail.