M’S Coach Elia Expects Full Recovery

Sun., June 15, 1997

Associated Press

Mariners hitting coach Lee Elia returned to work Saturday after learning he has early stage prostate cancer.

Elia, 59, will undergo brochytherapy, a procedure using radioactive seed implants, in late August or early September. He said he expects to be cancer-free within three months.

Elia left work May 25, while the team was in Kansas City, Mo., after the cancer was discovered through a blood test and biopsy. He said his father died of the same disease in the 1980s.

Elia said brochytherapy has a 97-percent success rate and he will miss only one day of work.

“Thank God for the PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) test,” he said Friday. “If anything good comes out of this, it is the fact there are several ways of solving this problem, and any man who starts pushing 50 should have a PSA test.”

A former manager for the Chicago Cubs and other teams, Elia has been the Mariners hitting coach for five years.

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M’S Coach Elia Expects Full Recovery

Jesse Tinsley

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