Ruth Bader Ginsburg on her way 'to being very well'

Aug. 31 (UPI) -- Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told a crowd Saturday at the Library of Congress in Washington that she is on her way "to being very well" following treatment for pancreatic cancer earlier this month.

Ginsburg, 86, said at the 2019 Library of Congress National Book Festival that she is recovering from three weeks of radiation treatment for pancreatic cancer.

"As this audience can see I am alive. And I'm on my way to being very well," the justice said.

The Supreme Court announced Aug. 23 that a malignancy had been found on Ginsburg's pancreas, leading to three weeks of radiation treatment.

"The tumor was treated definitively and there is no evidence of disease elsewhere in the body," the court's announcement said.

Ginsburg, who was interviewed by NPR's Nina Totenberg about her book "My Own Words" at the Library of Congress event, said she is recovering well from treatment and expects to be back to work when the next Supreme Court session starts.

"We have more than a month yet to go. I will be prepared when the time comes," she said.

Ginsburg said she draws strength from her position on the court.

"I love my job. It's the best and the hardest job that I have ever had. It's kept me going through four cancer bouts," Ginsburg said. "Instead of concentrating on my aches and pains, I just know that I have to read this set of briefs, go over the draft opinion."

"I have to somehow surmount whatever is going on in my body and concentrate on the court's work," she said.

Ginsburg was appointed to the court by President Bill Clinton in 1993. She is regarded as the senior member of the court's liberal contingent amid an ideological shift that has seen conservatives gain a 5-4 majority under President Donald Trump.