Caracas quiet as Chavez fights cancer

By Catherine E. Shoichet and Dana Ford, CNNDecember 31, 2012 -- Updated 1752 GMT (0152 HKT)/*var clickExpire="-1";var playerOverRide={headline:"Hugo Chavez\'s health mystery ",images:[{image:{height:"360",width:"640",text:"http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/121127063546-hugo-chavez-story-top.jpg"}}]};*/window.jQuery(document).ready(function() {window.CNNVIDEOS = window.CNNVIDEOS || {};CNNVIDEOS[ 'T1' ] = CNNVIDEO( 'cnnCVP1', {video: 'world/2012/12/12/oppmann-chavez-in-cuba.cnn',thumb: 'http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/121127063546-hugo-chavez-story-top.jpg',preset: 'storypage',diagnostics: {section: 'articlepage',placement: 'page-top'},network: 'cnn',adsection: cnnCVPAdSectionT1 || '',headline: 'Hugo Chavez\'s health mystery ',videoSource: 'CNN',videoSourceUrl: '',url: ''});// pause other videos playing on pagewindow.jQuery( '#cnnCVP1' ).on( 'onContentBegin', function( e, obj ) {for ( var instance in window.CNNVIDEOS ) {if ( instance !== 'T1' && window.CNNVIDEOS.hasOwnProperty( instance ) ) {try { window.CNNVIDEOS[ instance ].pause(); } catch(e){}}}});});/*var cnnWindowParams=window.location.toString().toQueryParams();if(typeof cnnWindowParams.video!="undefined"){if(cnnWindowParams.video){cnnLoadStoryPlayer('world/2012/12/12/oppmann-chavez-in-cuba.cnn','cnnCVP1', '640x384_start_art' ,playerOverRide,T1);}} else {$('cnnCVP2').onclick=function(){if ($$('.box-opened').length){$$('.box-opened').each(function(val){Element.fireEvent(val,'click');});}cnnLoadStoryPlayer('world/2012/12/12/oppmann-chavez-in-cuba.cnn','cnnCVP1','640x384_start_art',playerOverRide,T1);};$('cnnCVP2').onmouseover=function(){$('cnnCVP2').className='cnn_mtt1plybttn cnn_mtt1plybttnon';};$('cnnCVP2').onmouseout=function(){$('cnnCVP2').className='cnn_mtt1plybttn';};}*/Officials say Venezuelans should ring in the new year praying for ChavezA concert is called off in Caracas amid news that Chavez is battling fresh complicationsVenezuela's vice president says Chavez's health remains "delicate" Complications have emerged from a respiratory infection, the vice president says

(CNN) -- Leaders in Venezuela's capital are asking residents to take a more somber approach than usual to ring in the New Year.

Instead of marking the occasion with salsa music, Venezuelans should pray for President Hugo Chavez's health, Caracas officials say.

Ten bands had been scheduled to take the stage in a free concert in the historic center of the city Monday. But officials called off the show after they got word that Chavez had suffered "new complications" from cancer surgery.

"Everyone should pray, sending strength to our Commander to overcome this difficult moment," Jacqueline Faria, a Chavez appointee and top official in Caracas, said in a Twitter post announcing the concert's cancellation.

The bands that were scheduled to perform in the concert Monday "will cede space so that Venezuelan families can bring in 2013 praying for the president's health," Venezuela's state-run AVN news agency reported.

The cancellation, announced Sunday night, came after Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro said in televised remarks that Chavez's health condition remained "delicate" 19 days after surgery.

As Chavez battles cancer, Maduro waits in the wings

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He did not provide additional details, but said the complications "are being treated in a process that is not without risks."

Maduro spoke in Havana, Cuba, where Chavez is undergoing treatment. He said he had met with Chavez, who has not been seen in public or heard from for weeks.

"Thanks to his physical and spiritual strength, Comandante Chavez is confronting this difficult situation," Maduro said.

The Venezuelan president first announced he was battling cancer in June 2011.

Read more: Venezuela deports French man over alleged Chavez plot

Chavez has not disclosed what type of cancer he has, and the Venezuelan government has released few details about his illness, fueling widespread speculation about his health and political future.

Last year, Chavez had surgery to remove a cancerous tumor and he has undergone further surgery and radiation in Cuba since. He returned to the island nation this month for more surgery after publicly revealing that his cancer had returned.

He underwent a six-hour surgical procedure on December 11 that Maduro, in a televised address, declared a success.

A week after the president's surgery, Venezuelan Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said Chavez was battling a respiratory infection.

Recently Villegas and Maduro have struck a somber tone when discussing the president's illness, in contrast to previous government messages about his health. Villegas has suggested Chavez might not be not be back in Venezuela in time for his inauguration, which is scheduled for January 10.

Chavez addressed the delicate nature of his health before leaving Venezuela for Cuba. He said that if his condition were to worsen, Maduro should replace him as president. It was the first time Chavez had spoken about a possible successor.

Read more: Hugo Chavez fast facts

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Venezuela's Chavez: Cancer is back

NEW: Parliament will convene special session over Chavez's trip to Cuba, an official says"An operation like this, an illness like this, always carries risk," says Hugo ChavezHe says his vice president should succeed him if his health worsensChavez, who won reelection this year, will return to Cuba for the operation

Havana (CNN) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced late Saturday that his cancer has returned and that he will go to Cuba to undergo surgery.

Speaking during a televised address from the presidential palace, he said that if his health were to worsen, Vice President Nicolas Maduro should replace him.

It was the first time Chavez spoke publicly about the possibility of a successor -- a shocking admission from a man who looms larger than life in Venezuela and in Latin American politics.

"It's absolutely necessary, absolutely vital that I undergo a new operation," said Chavez.

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"An operation like this, an illness like this, always carries risk," he said. "If something were to happen that would incapacitate me, Nicholas Maduro should not only finish my term as the constitution requires ... You should also elect Nicholas Maduro to be president."

A special session of parliament will be convened Sunday morning to consider Chavez's health and his pending trip to Cuba, Diosdado Cabello, president of the Venezuelan National Assembly, said on state-run TV.

The parliament is required under the constitution to approve any trip that takes the president out of the country for more than five days.

Just this week, Chavez returned from Cuba after receiving medical treatment. He said doctors detected malignant cells and that he expects to undergo surgery in the coming days.

Read more: Chavez makes appearance after Cuban treatment

The president has repeatedly spoken publicly about his cancer battle, but has never specified what type he has.

Chavez, who had surgery in 2011 to remove a cancerous tumor, has undergone further operations and radiation therapy in Cuba since then. He declared himself cancer-free in July.

The government has released few specifics, fueling widespread speculation about his health and political future.

Health rumors dogged Chavez on the campaign trail this year, but didn't stop him from winning reelection in October.

Details of his health, however, have been a closely held secret, and some people who claim to have insider knowledge say the president is in much worse condition than he publicly lets on.

CNN's Dana Ford and Rafael Fuenmayor contributed to this report.

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No Clear Link Between Cancer and 9/11 Debris, New York Health Dept. Study Finds

The study was by far the largest to date. It examined 55,700 people, including rescue and recovery workers who were present at the World Trade Center site, on barges or at the Staten Island landfill where debris was taken in the nine months after Sept. 11, 2001, as well as residents of Lower Manhattan, students, workers and passers-by exposed on the day of the terrorist attacks.

Over all, there was no increase in the cancer rate of those studied compared with the rate of the general population, researchers concluded after looking at 23 cancers from 2003 to 2008. The prevalence of three cancers — multiple myeloma, prostate and thyroid — was significantly higher, but only in rescue and recovery workers and not in the rest of the exposed population. But since the number of actual cases was small and the subjects of the study may have been screened more frequently for cancer than other people on average, the researchers noted that it was too early to draw any correlation to time spent at ground zero.

In one of many counterintuitive findings, the incidence of cancer was not higher among those who were exposed more intensely to the toxic substances than among those who were exposed less.

The lack of clear evidence of a link between cancer and the debris from Sept. 11 casts into doubt the decision by the federal government in June to add 50 different types of cancer to the list of illnesses covered by the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, signed by President Obama in early 2011. That decision meant that people with other sicknesses linked more strongly to ground zero were likely to receive less money.

Dr. Thomas A. Farley, the health commissioner in New York City, said in an interview on Monday that it was too soon to take the study as a repudiation of the government’s decision.

“Cancers take 20 years to develop,” Dr. Farley said, “and we might see something different 20 years down the line.” But echoing Dr. John Howard, head of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, who made the final decision on covering cancer, the commissioner added, “You don’t want to wait 20 to 30 years to get a definitive answer” to people suffering today.

On Tuesday, Dr. Howard issued a statement that said, “The W.T.C. Health Program welcomes this addition to the peer-reviewed scientific literature, and we have long encouraged the growth of such peer-reviewed research.”

Dr. Alfred I. Neugut, an oncologist and professor of epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, said he was not surprised by the study. “I think, given the time frame and the exposures,” he said, “that there wasn’t a high likelihood that there would be an elevated risk, certainly for cancer, and to the degree that it was, it would not be for the cancers that they’re finding.”

Dr. Neugut said he sympathized with people who had cancer they attributed to the disaster, but added that their emotional response was not necessarily valid scientifically. “The 9/11 attack was a terrible thing, but it doesn’t cause everything in the world,” he said. “Cancer is a very specific outcome, and in most exposures, you have to be exposed for an extended time before you get the cancer.”

Initially, the money set aside by the law — $2.8 billion to compensate victims and $1.5 billion for monitoring and treatment costs not covered by health insurance — covered mainly respiratory illnesses. (Mental health problems were included in the treatment fund but not the compensation fund.) Studies by the city health department have found asthma and post-traumatic stress disorder to be linked to the 2001 attacks. But cancer is expected to be far more expensive to treat than other qualifying illnesses, and the economic loss caused by cancer could require more compensation, since many cancer patients cannot work, and some have died.

The study was released on Tuesday, and was to be published in the Wednesday issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association — too late to influence Dr. Howard’s decision, but perhaps not too late to influence public opinion going forward or to affect whether Congress will decide to replenish the victim compensation fund should more money be needed.

The fund has not yet begun making payments, and it is supposed to make its final payments in 2016-17. In the meantime, some police officers and other rescue and recovery workers who worked at ground zero and have cancer have been receiving enhanced pension benefits based on a 2005 state law that said they were presumed to have contracted cancer from the ground zero substances.

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Sheen gives money to cancer patient

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