Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was treated for prostate cancer, which was identified last month, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center said in a statement, and complications from that procedure led to his hospitalization on New Year's Day.
The statement — from Dr. John Maddox, trauma medical director, and Dr. Gregory Chesnut, director of the Center for Prostate Disease Research of the Murtha Cancer Center, at Walter Reed — is the first indication of why Austin was hospitalized on New Year's Day. It still does not answer questions, however, of why no one — not the president, not Congress or indeed Austin's own deputy — was informed about where he was or his condition.
