Golfer Farr Has Surgery for Cancer

TUCSON — Surgeons on Thursday performed a highly delicate procedure aimed at destroying a cancerous tumor at the top of golfer Heather Farr’s spinal cord.

The 28-year-old Phoenix resident was being treated at the University of Arizona’s Medical Center with precisely focused X-ray radiation called spinal sterotactic radiosurgery, considered minimally invasive.

The surgery began in the morning and was expected to continue into the evening, hospital spokesman George Humphrey said.

Farr faces still further treatment soon--a second bone marrow transplant.

Farr previously underwent a modified radical mastectomy, breast reconstruction, chemotherapy, radiation, a bone marrow transplant and hormone therapy.

She received emergency surgery Aug. 16 at Tucson Medical Center for removal of a breast implant that had hardened and was threatening surrounding tissue and bleeding.