# Sonia Gandhi reveals two cancer battles in memoir 2026-11-10T13:43:18+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 2 independent outlets Congress leader Sonia Gandhi has disclosed in her newly published memoir that she battled cancer twice, first breast cancer in 2010 and a pancreatic tumour a year later. In the 526-page book 'Belonging: A Journey of Love', she writes that she chose to undergo surgery in Italy's European Institute of Oncology near Milan rather than at Mumbai's Tata Memorial Hospital because she wanted to keep her illness private from the media. Doctors removed two tumours during the 2010 surgery and performed intra-operative radiation, sparing her five weeks of radiotherapy. A follow-up scan a year later revealed a growth in her pancreas. After consulting multiple doctors, she was operated on at Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, Netherlands, by pancreatic surgeon Dr Casper van Eijk. Only then-prime minister Manmohan Singh and a few senior aides were informed of the second surgery. She recounts that she was 'fortunate' the tumour was caught at a pre-cancerous stage. The memoir also describes her fainting during a 2016 Varanasi rally, after which she required shoulder surgery. ## Indian Opinion Analysis Both outlets carry the same facts from Sonia Gandhi's memoir 'Belonging: A Journey of Love' about her two cancer battles, a breast-cancer surgery in 2010 and a pancreatic tumour removal a year later. The accounts are virtually identical, differing only in headline tone: Prabhatkhabar leads with her decision to avoid Indian media by choosing Italy for the first operation, while TV9 Hindi leads with her disclosing her fight against the disease. Neither outlet adds independent reporting, editorial comment, or political framing, both reproduce her narrative verbatim. The uniform coverage means readers get only Gandhi's own version of events, with no scrutiny of her medical decisions or their timing. The concrete point both sources agree on is that she remains alive and, by her own account, cancer-free after the two episodes. ## Coverage Coverage: 2 sources, 2 neutral - prabhatkhabar.com (neutral report) Leads with her reason to avoid Indian media for treatment - tv9hindi.com (neutral report) Leads with her straightforward disclosure of illness This brief was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above, so one read covers every framing they carry. Tags: Belonging: A Journey of Love, Manmohan Singh, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/sonia-gandhi-reveals-two-cancer-battles-in-memoir/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/sonia-gandhi-reveals-two-cancer-battles-in-memoir/#story-in-brief How this brief was made: an AI model read the reports linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. Stance labels are editorial classifications of how each outlet framed this story, assigned by the same model, not ratings of the outlets. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/