Rudolph Giuliani speaks frankly about surviving prostate cancer in a radio ad released Monday in New Hampshire, just as the former New York mayor launches a week of campaigning in the first primary state.
“I had prostate cancer, five, six years ago,” Giuliani says in the ad, which promotes his plan to give Americans tax deductions to pay for their own insurance.
But in the ad, Giuliani cites statistics that appear to exaggerate his claim that he had a better chance of surviving in the United States than he would have under European-style “socialized medicine.”
He says the five-year survival rates for prostate cancer in England are only 44 percent, while in the United States the number is 82 percent. An August report by United Kingdom’s Office of National Statistics, however, puts the five-year survival rate at a much higher 74.4 percent.
Giuliani spokeswoman Maria Comella stood by the ad, saying that overall trends show U.S. health care is clearly superior.
The former mayor’s candid acknowledgment that he had cancer might be seen as an unconventional choice, given that voters can be reluctant to elect a candidate they believe has serious health problems.
But Dante Scala, an associate professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire, said it could be a wise move if voters see a different side to the New Yorker with a brash reputation.
Two other Republican presidential candidates also have been diagnosed with cancer. Fred Thompson said earlier this year that his lymphoma is in remission, and John McCain underwent surgery for melanoma in 2000.