6. Ronald Reagan
The 40th president underwent surgery for colon cancer in July of 1985. They removed the polyp and nearly 2 feet of intestine. Two feet of his colon were removed, according to Fitness magazine. He fully recovered. He rose from a poor childhood to become a Hollywood film star then claimed the Oval Office. Early in his second term, doctors found a growth in his large intestine. The president’s public experience helped to raise awareness about this type of cancer.
His physicians conducted a follow-up check on Reagan, who had had a small, benign colon polyp removed after a 1984 proctoscopic exam. With the March 1985 stool test positive for blood, doctors feared that another polyp had developed. Reagan’s diet was changed to eliminate the possibility of a false positive test from blood in meat. Reagan’s March 1985 checkup – conducted through a partial bowel examination — detected another polyp, which was also benign. Reagan’s colonoscopy of July 12, 1985, resulted in the sighting of a new polyp in the right colon that was biopsied. The microscopic exam report declared it a “villous adenoma,” suspicious of malignancy. Eighteen months after the colon surgery, Reagan’s follow-up colonoscopy detected four more polyps, which were removed on Jan. 4, 1987. None was malignant.
He beat the disease, but Alzheimer’s claimed him at age 93.