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

DATE: THURSDAY, December 9, 1993                   TAG: 9312090179
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: From Associated Press reports
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

AZINGER EXPECTED TO BEAT CANCER

Paul Azinger, the PGA champion and second-leading money winner on the PGA Tour this year, has a lymphoma cancer in his right shoulder but hopes to be hitting golf balls again in about six months.

Doctors said Wednesday that the lymphoma in the bone of Azinger's right shoulder blade is 90 percent curable and that they expect a full recovery. The overall cure rate for lymphoma is about 50 percent, according to the American Cancer Society.

The lymphoma was discovered after Azinger played the Skins Game during Thanksgiving weekend in obvious pain and with a clearly restricted swing.

He had exploratory surgery on his right shoulder in 1991 when X-rays showed a spot on the shoulder bone, but no malignancy was discovered. He began experiencing pain in his back last month and very nearly withdrew from the Skins Game.

"My doctors are very optimistic that they have caught this early enough so that a full and complete recovery is expected," Azinger said in a statement released Wednesday by his management representatives, Leader Enterprises, in Orlando, Fla.

The lymphoma was discovered by Dr. Frank Jobe at the Centinela Hospital in Los Angeles. Dr. Lorne Feldman, chief of oncology at Centinella, said Azinger will receive six chemotherapy injections, one every four weeks, followed by five weeks of daily radiation therapy.

by CNB