Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was treated for prostate cancer and a urinary tract infection, doctors say

WASHINGTON —  Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III has prostatecancer, and his recent secretive hospitalization was for surgery and to treat a urinary tract infection related to that operation, his doctors said Tuesday.

Austin, 70, was admitted to Walter Reed NationalMilitary Medical Center on Dec. 22 and underwent surgery to treat the cancer. He developed the infection a week later. President Biden and other senior administration officials were not told for days about his cancer or hospitalization.

According to the doctors, the cancer was detected when Austin had a regular screening in early December. They said he “underwent a minimally invasive surgical procedure” and went home the next day. But on Jan. 1 he reported nausea and abdominal, hip and leg pain due to the infection.

The doctors said the prostate cancer was detected early, and his prognosis is excellent.

The revelation follows days of questions about Austin’s hospitalization and the delays in notifying leaders. And it raises more questions about the transparency and truthfulness of the Defense Department, which for four days said Austin was at Walter Reed for an “elective medical procedure.”

Asked Tuesday about that wording, Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said it was developed in consultation with Austin’s doctors. When pressed on the delays in public notification, Ryder said, “Despite the frequency of prostate cancer, discussions about screening, treatment and support are often deeply personal and private ones.”

It was not clear Tuesday how the illness will affect Austin’s work, travel or public engagements.

The lack of transparency about Austin’s hospitalization — including the failure to tell Biden and other top officials about it for days — has triggered sharp criticism. Several Republican lawmakers said Austin should be ousted. Earlier Tuesday, the White House chief of staff ordered Cabinet members to notify his office if they ever can’t perform their duties.

Drs. John Maddox and Gregory Chesnut of Walter Reed provided the first details of Austin’s prognosis in a statement put out by the Pentagon. They said he was under anesthesia during the initial surgery and, when he went to intensive care Jan. 2, the infection had triggered an intestinal backup, and his stomach had to be drained with a tube in his nose.

“We anticipate a full recovery, although this can be a slow process,” the doctors said. They noted that prostate cancer is the most common cancer among U.S. men, affecting 1 in 8. (Among African American men, the rate is 1 in 6.)

The Biden administration, reeling from Austin’s surprise illness, is mounting a policy review. The Pentagon has launched its own review.

White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients, in a memo to Cabinet secretaries, directed that they send by Friday any procedures for delegating authority in the event of incapacitation or loss of communication.

While the review is ongoing, he is requiring agencies to notify his office and the Office of Cabinet Affairs if an agency experiences or plans to experience a circumstance in which a Cabinet head can’t perform his or her duties.

Biden and other top officials weren’t informed for days that Austin had turned over power to his deputy. A Pentagon spokesman blamed the lapse on a key staffer being out with the flu.

“Agencies should ensure that delegations are issued when a Cabinet Member is traveling to areas with limited or no access to communication, undergoing hospitalization or a medical procedure requiring general anesthesia, or otherwise in a circumstance when he or she may be unreachable,” Zients’ memo states. It also requires that agencies document when any such transfer of authorities occurs and that the person serving in the acting role promptlyestablish contact with relevant White House staff.

During Austin’s two hospitalizations, he transferred some of his authorities to Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks, but she was not told why. The White House was not informed that Austin was in the hospital until Thursday, and the public and Congress didn’t learn of it until Friday.

The Pentagon issued a memo Monday on its internal review and broadened the circle of leaders who would be informed of any delegation of authorities by the Defense secretary to ensure that, in the future, “proper and timely notification has been made to the President and White House and, as appropriate, the United States Congress and the American public.”

Going forward, any time authority is transferred, a wider swath of officials will be notified, including the Pentagon’s general counsel, the chair and vice chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the combatant commanders, service secretaries, the service chiefs of staff, the White House situation room and the senior staff of the secretary and deputy secretary of Defense.