Dean Baquet, who took over as the top editor at The New York Times last month, had a malignant tumor removed from his kidney on Saturday, the newspaper reported Monday morning.
Baquet, 57, will spend about a week away from the office while recovering, the paper reported, citing an e-mail the executive editor sent to the staff on Monday.
The tumor was discovered by doctors on June 12, Baquet said in the e-mail — and the decision was made that the situation needed “immediate attention.”
“[My] doctors have given me an excellent prognosis,” Baquet wrote in the e-mail, according to the paper’s report.
The tumor was removed via a “minimally invasive” surgical procedure, said Baquet — who wrote that the process was “completely successful.”
Baquet had previously served as managing editor, the No. 2 newsroom job at the Times.
He was named head of the newsroom in May after the abrupt firing of his predecessor, Jill Abramson, by publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr.