
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 13, 1990                   TAG: 9004131111
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/7   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

GOP CHIEF ATWATER TRIM, READY TO FIGHT

Mary Matalin's home phone rang at a quarter to seven. "Hey, what's movin'?" asked the familiar, raspy voice. Calling from his New York hospital room, Lee Atwater was hungry for the latest political news.

The early morning phone calls to the Republican Party's chief of staff aren't likely to let up now that party chairman Atwater is back home after 10 days in New York where he underwent treatment for a brain tumor.

Not for two or three months will doctors know how effective the latest treatment was for the tumor described as "aggressive and dangerous" by Dr. Paul Kornblith.

Experts at treating such tumors have said the five-year survival rate can range from 50 percent to as low as 10 percent, depending on a range of characteristics.

Kornblith, who led the team that treated Atwater at Montefiore Medical Center in New York, maintained a firmly optimistic attitude.

"He's in fighting trim and ready to fight the wars of his profession," Kornblith said Thursday shortly before releasing Atwater from the hospital.

-Associated Press

by CNB