Argentine Leader Is Told Thyroid Was Cancer-Free

President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina never had thyroid cancer despite a diagnosis of the disease last month, her spokesman said on Saturday. The government announced in late December that Mrs. Kirchner had cancer, but the spokesman, Alfredo Scoccimarro, said an examination of her thyroid gland, which was removed Wednesday, had found no cancerous cells. “The original diagnosis has been modified,” he said at a news conference. “The presence of cancer cells was discarded.” Eduardo Faure, a thyroid cancer expert in Buenos Aires who is not on the president’s medical team, said a small number of such cases turned out to be “false positives.” “The cells may originally appear to be cancer, but in 2 percent of cases, after the operation, when a more thorough examination can be performed, it turns out they are not,” he said.

several hundred supporters of Mrs. Kirchner, 58, who won re-election in October with 54 percent of the vote, had camped out near the hospital where she was treated, carrying banners that said, “Strength, Cristina.” A cheer went up when Mr. Scoccimarro made the announcement. The original diagnosis of papillary carcinoma alarmed many of Mrs. Kirchner’s supporters, especially after the death of her husband, Néstor, a former president who had remained an unrivaled political force, in 2010 from a heart attack.