Ruth Bader Ginsburg Announces Her Cancer Is Back but Treatment 'Is Yielding Positive Results'

Ruth Bader Ginsburg said Friday that she is again being treated for cancer — which she has survived four times before — and, as of now, chemotherapy "is yielding positive results."

"I have often said I would remain a member of the Court as long as I can do the job full steam," the 87-year-old Supreme Court justice said in a statement. "I remain fully able to do that."

Ginsburg said she began treatment for a "recurrence of cancer" in mid-May after a February scan and biopsy "revealed lesions on my liver."

She was previously hospitalized in May and earlier this month for a gallbladder condition and an infection, respectively. But the other hospitalizations were unrelated, she said Friday.

"My most recent scan on July 7 indicated significant reduction of the liver lesions and no new disease. I am tolerating chemotherapy well and am encouraged by the success of my current treatment," she said.

She said that, "satisfied that my treatment course is now clear, I am providing this information."

"I will continue bi-weekly chemotherapy to keep my cancer at bay, and am able to maintain an active daily routine," said Ginsburg, an anchor of the court's liberal wing. "Throughout, I have kept up with opinion writing and all other Court work."

RELATED: Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Health Scares and Recoveries, from Surviving Cancer to Fracturing Her Ribs

Charles Dharapak/AP/REX/Shutterstock Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ginsburg was treated last year for pancreatic cancer and, in 2018, had surgery to treat lung cancer.

She said last year that her work had helped keep her going.

"Instead of concentrating on my aches and pains, I just know that I have to read this set of briefs, go over the draft opinion," she said in August, according to NPR. "And so I have to somehow surmount whatever is going on in my body and concentrate on the Court's work."

Speaking with NPR earlier last summer, she took a wry view of her health challenges and her endurance.

"There was a senator, I think it was after my pancreatic cancer, who announced with great glee that I was going to be dead within six months," she said then, adding:

"That senator, whose name I have forgotten, is now himself dead and I am very much alive."