While Ronald Reagan was in office, he had a colectomy for a colon tumor in 1985 (turned out it was not cancer) [0], and his wife had a mastectomy for breast can

While Ronald Reagan was in office, he had a colectomy for a colon tumor in 1985 (turned out it was not cancer) [0], and his wife had a mastectomy for breast cancer in 1987 [1]: While Reagan did a lot to try to defund cancer research regardless, the first lady's mastectomy drew a lot of attention to a previously taboo topic. [0] https://www.nytimes.com/1985/07/16/us/reagan-s-illness-medical-outlook-cancer-of-the-colon-a-leading-killer.html https://www.nytimes.com/1985/07/16/us/reagan-s-illness-medic... [1] https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-10-18-mn-15261-story.html https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-10-18-mn-15261-...