JERUSALEM, Oct. 29 — Israel’s prime minister, Ehud Olmert, announced Monday that he had early-stage prostate cancer that his doctors said could be treated and cured.
Mr. Olmert, 62, called an unexpected news conference at the prime minister’s office at noon and said the “first signs” of a cancerous growth had been detected in his prostate gland as a result of routine testing. Though malignant, he said that the cancer had not metastasized and that it would be surgically removed, without need for radiation or chemotherapy treatment. He said the surgery would be carried out sometime in the next few months.
“I will be fit to fulfill my role in every way, before the treatment and a few hours after it,” Mr. Olmert said, adding that his doctors had told him there was nothing life-threatening about his condition.
“It is my intention to continue to work and to devote myself entirely to running the affairs of state,” he said.
Mr. Olmert said that while he was not legally obliged to disclose information about his medical condition, he wanted to bring it to the public’s attention on his own initiative, and soon after receiving the diagnosis.
Wearing a bright, rose-colored tie and sounding calm, Mr. Olmert delivered a brief statement and immediately left the hall. Dr. Shlomo Segev, director of the Institute for Medical Screening at the Chaim Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer, near Tel Aviv, and Prof. Jacob Ramon, chairman of the Department of Urology and Uro-Oncology at the same hospital, joined him on the podium and stayed to answer questions. Professor Ramon, a former pilot in the Israeli Air Force, will probably perform the surgery, a hospital spokesman said.
Mr. Olmert’s doctors gave a reassuring assessment, calling the prime minister’s tumor “microscopic,” and saying the surgery was not urgent. Professor Ramon put Mr. Olmert’s prospects of disease-free survival — meaning no recurrence of the disease after treatment — at more than 95 percent.
Mr. Olmert underwent a biopsy on Oct. 19 and received the results about a week later, Dr. Segev said.
The treatment will involve the full removal of Mr. Olmert’s prostate gland, an operation that can be performed under full or local anesthetic, the doctors said. They added that the procedure usually required three days’ hospitalization followed by a period of recuperation at home.
The prime minister will be incapacitated for four to five hours during and immediately after the operation, according to the doctors. He will probably be temporarily replaced by the vice prime minister and foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, who was informed of the diagnosis while on an official visit to China.
The doctors said Mr. Olmert’s ability to travel would not be affected by his condition, other than for a few weeks after the surgery. According to the doctors, it is usual to wait at least six weeks between the biopsy and surgery. Since there is no urgency to operate, Mr. Olmert is expected to be able to attend a Middle East peace conference planned to take place in Annapolis, Md., before the end of the year.
Mr. Olmert took over the duties of prime minister in January 2006 after his predecessor, Ariel Sharon, suffered a crippling stroke that left him comatose. Mr. Olmert was elected to the office in March 2006. Mr. Sharon still lies in a long-term rehabilitation facility — also at the Chaim Sheba Medical Center.
Mr. Olmert faced calls for his resignation this spring after an official committee of inquiry accused him of severe failures in conducting the 2006 war in Lebanon. This month, he was questioned twice by the police at his official residence as part of a criminal investigation into whether he tried in 2005, as acting finance minister, to help steer the sale of an Israeli bank to a friend. Two other criminal inquiries involving Mr. Olmert are under way.
Meanwhile, in Gaza on Monday, two Palestinian gunmen belonging to Hamas and a 44-year-old civilian were killed by Israeli ground and air forces during clashes in the north and the south of the territory, according to Palestinian medical officials. One Israeli soldier, a 34-year-old reservist, was killed and another was seriously wounded in the clashes, an army spokeswoman said.
Separately, Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, urged Israel to “reconsider its actions” concerning the Gaza Strip, a day after Israel starting reducing fuel supplies to the territory in response to continuing rocket fire from Gaza.
Mr. Ban said the “punitive measures” taken by Israel were “unacceptable.” The Israeli government had also announced its intention to interrupt electricity supplies to the Gaza Strip, but late Monday Israel’s attorney general ordered the defense establishment to re-examine that decision in the light of the harm it would cause to Gaza’s people.
Isabel Kershner reported from Jerusalem and Graham Bowley from New York.
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