Archbishop Tutu's cancer fear fades

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has shown no signs of prostate cancer in blood tests taken since surgery in the Autumn, say doctors.

Specialist, Dr. Harry Clarke, the urologist who performed the surgery in November at Emory University Hospital, said the cancerous tissue in and around Tutu's prostate gland has not recurred.

"It's really a positive sign," Clarke said.

His cancer, first diagnosed in 1997, returned last year. During a two-hour surgical procedure, Clarke pumped gaseous argon through tiny tubes to freeze the prostate tissue and destroy the cancer cells.

Tutu, 68, the former Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his efforts to end apartheid in South Africa. He is now a visiting professor of theology at Emory in Atlanta. On May 21, he will give the commencement address at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, where he will also receive an honorary doctorate of humane letters.