World Leaders Undergoing Cancer Treatment

As Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announces that he is returning to Cuba for cancer treatment, HuffPost World takes a look at other world leaders who have battled cancer while in office.

Chavez announced on Tuesday that doctors found a two-centimeter new lesion in the same area where cancer was detected last year.

"I'm a human being," Chavez said on television, according to Reuters. "I'm not immortal." He added that there was a high probability that the lesion was malignant.

Venezuela's president is not the only world leader who has fought the disease while in power. Reuters reports that Ronald Reagan was treated for cancerous polyps from his colon while in the White House in 1985. France's Francois Mitterrand fell ill with prostate cancer in 1981, and Brazil's former president Lula Da Silva is currently recovering from throat cancer.

Take a look at the slideshow below to see world leaders who have fought cancer while in office. Captions courtesy of Reuters.

Comments

[darubo27usa]

08:36 PM on 02/24/2012

I would love to see him swallow a granade.

[KIVPossum]

04:55 AM on 02/24/2012

World Leaders UNDERGOING Cancer Treatment........since 5 of them are dead, what's the appropriate treatment for stiffs?

[Eagleman]

12:09 AM on 02/24/2012

Hope they all live long to suffer their disease....

[grizzly bear55]

09:09 AM on 02/24/2012

That's the meanest thing I ever read, I have no idea how it passed the censors.

[flipacoin]

09:04 PM on 02/22/2012

Leaders,,,lead. Dictators...dictate. Calling Hugo a leader is giving him too much credit.

[Fred303]

03:03 AM on 02/23/2012

Just because you don't agree with him and you drink American kool-aid doesn't make him a dictator. He was elected by his people.

[Antonio Martin]

08:43 PM on 02/22/2012

They forgot Christina Kirschner of Argetina, whon isn battling Cancer too/

[cbstinc]

08:39 PM on 02/22/2012

Well Chavez has to go no matter what

[Gayle Boesky]

04:44 PM on 03/18/2012

That's up to the Venezuelans. I haven't found any clauses in the Constitution giving us the power to remove him.