Doctor Gives Wilson Clean Bill of Health; Biopsy Benign

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Pete Wilson’s doctor released a statement Wednesday giving the Republican presidential hopeful a clean bill of health.

Wilson will make a complete recovery from April 14 surgery to remove a benign node from his vocal cords, Dr. Gerald Berke said in the statement.

“A frozen section taken at the time of his throat surgery was benign and a follow-up biopsy taken from additional tissue three days later also returned benign,” said Berke, chief of the head and neck surgery division at UCLA Medical Center.

There is only mild inflammation of Wilson’s right vocal cord, Berke said. “I continue to recommend that the governor refrain from speaking until the inflammation of the right vocal fold subsides.”

Leslie Goodman, Wilson’s communications director, said the statement was meant to dispel a rumor that Wilson, who is recovering from throat surgery, may have cancer.

One Wilson aide said privately that the cancer rumors “may have come from the Clinton White House.” Another said the throat cancer rumors “have been circulating for the past four weeks on the East Coast, and now they’ve come out here. They are 100% not true.”

Wilson, 61, now speaks in a throaty rasp and has used surrogates to deliver speeches in recent weeks. Wilson’s budding presidential campaign has been hurt by his slow recovery from surgery.