Chief Raoni Metuktire, the 94-year-old Brazilian indigenous leader known worldwide for defending the Amazon, has a tumor in his digestive system, and the medical team treating him has ruled out therapy aimed at a cure. The Instituto Raoni announced the diagnosis on Monday night (14), and G1, Globo's news portal, detailed the case. The chief has been receiving palliative care since an emergency operation in June in the city of São Paulo.
According to the institute's statement, carried by the Reuters news agency, the first signs of decline appeared a few months ago, with persistent abdominal pain that led to his first hospitalization. Imaging exams showed a tumor at an advanced stage. On June 19, Raoni was transferred to Hospital São Paulo, run by the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp), where he underwent surgery to relieve a bowel obstruction caused by the disease.
The diagnosis is a poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma, the most common type of malignant tumor of the digestive tract, which starts in the glands that line it. "Poorly differentiated" describes cells that have lost much of the appearance and organization of healthy cells, a trait linked to more aggressive behavior, G1 explains. The lesion sits at the duodenum, the first portion of the small intestine. Because a biopsy was avoided in June due to the risk of bleeding, confirmation came from laboratory analysis of tumor tissue removed during the operation. The organ where the cancer began remains undefined.
Why a cure was ruled out
Since the tumor could not be removed, the Unifesp team performed a gastroenteroanastomosis, a procedure that creates a new route in the digestive system so food bypasses the blocked area. "When the mass is very large, it is not always possible to know what the epicenter was. It could have been the stomach, the pancreas, the intestine," surgeon Pedro Luiz Bertevello, who holds a doctorate from the University of São Paulo and works in oncological surgery at the Beneficência Portuguesa hospital, told G1. With advanced disease in a patient too frail for a wider investigation, finding the starting point became unviable and of little consequence for treatment.
Oncologist Stephen Stefani, of the Oncoclínicas group, summed up the clinical reasoning: "The biology of the disease is what defines the possibilities of treatment and the prognosis." The goal now, according to the Instituto Raoni, is a different one: caring for the chief rather than fighting the tumor. The institute listed what the team is working toward:
"The objective becomes controlling pain and other symptoms, reducing discomfort, preserving whatever autonomy is possible, ensuring adequate food and hydration, preventing complications, providing medical and nursing follow-up and offering the best possible quality of life."
The institute added that the priority is care delivered "with safety, comfort and dignity, respecting his culture, his language, his decisions and the presence of his family and his people." At 94, Raoni has for decades been one of the most recognized indigenous voices for the protection of native peoples and the forest. He has appeared alongside presidents and popes, and in the 1980s joined the musician Sting in international campaigns to save the Amazon, a path that made him a lasting presence in the global climate debate.