MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Lula da Silva’s presidential candidate cured of lymphatic cancer

Chief of staff Dilma Rousseff ready for the 2010 battle

The woman Brazilian President Lula da Silva wants to succeed him is cured of lymphatic cancer, her doctors said Monday.

“After exhaustive examinations it was determined that her treatment achieved the expected result and that Minister Dilma Rousseff is free of any sign of lymphoma,” according to a note from doctors at the Sirio Libanes Hospital in Sao Paulo where she was treated.

The one-time guerrilla and veteran leader of the governing Workers Party is in “an excellent general state of health” and may return to her normal routine.

Rousseff, who is Lula’s chief of staff, underwent a biopsy in April that allowed doctors to diagnose her with lymphoma. Although at the time doctors acknowledged that with the early diagnosis and the removal of the affected nodule, any possibility of metastasis could be dismissed, they recommended chemotherapy and radiation.

The treatment, which ended this month and which obliged the official to wear a wig due to hair loss, was considered a success by the doctors, who examined her several times last week.

Though her candidacy has not been made official and Rousseff refuses to say anything about it, both Lula da Silva and Workers Party leaders consider it already decided.

Surveys of voting preferences show her in third place after opposition leader and Sao Paulo state Gov. Jose Serra and lately behind hopeful lawmaker Ciro Gomez.

The cancer, which was thought by some political leaders to be an impediment to her candidacy, did not stop Rousseff from keeping to her normal routine and work agenda including numerous trips with Lula da Silva.

The October 2010 election will be the first presidential poll in the last 20 years in which Lula da Silva will not stand as candidate, since after being elected in 2002 on his fourth try, he was re-elected in 2006 and is constitutionally barred from running for a third term.