* President Lugo responding well to chemotherapy - doctor
* Treatment will continue despite positive results (Adds quote by personal doctor, hospital; background)
ASUNCION, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo's lymphatic cancer is retreating, the country's health minister said on Friday, commenting on the results of recent tests taken in Brazil.
Lugo, 59, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a cancer that originates in the lymphatic system, in August and has undergone treatment in a Sao Paulo, Brazil, hospital.
He is currently in Sao Paulo undergoing a third chemotherapy session and tests to determine how he has responded to the treatment so far.
The nodes "have disappeared in all the places where they had been found and there are no new lesions," Health Minister Esperanza Martinez told reporters at government house. "It's the best possible scenario."
In a statement, the Sao Paulo Syrian-Lebanese hospital said tests show Lugo responded favorably to the two chemotherapy sessions he has undergone.
But despite the positive results, the treatment -- which includes three more chemotherapy sessions until December -- will continue, Martinez said.
Speculation abounds in the politically unstable soy-exporting country about whether chemotherapy could force the former Roman Catholic bishop to scale back his duties or step down temporarily before his term ends in 2013.
His condition has not dramatically altered his day-to-day governing duties. He appears energetic in public events and the only evidence of the cancer is that he has lost his hair.
Lugo's doctors have said the cancer is in an advanced stage but that there is a high chance that it is curable.
A statement by the presidency citing Alfredo Boccia, one of the doctors treating him, said Lugo "has had a very good response to the treatment despite the fact that he has only undergone two out of six chemotherapy sessions."
Martinez said that if the positive results continue after the chemotherapy, Lugo would go through regular health check-ups for a couple of years before he can be declared healthy.
Lugo, who quit the church to run for the presidency three years ago, has been under pressure in recent months due to murders and kidnappings blamed on a small armed group operating in remote northern areas bordering Bolivia and Brazil. [ID:nN2898573]
He is expected to return to Paraguay's capital Asuncion on Friday. His doctors said Lugo may have to cut back on his duties next week to avoid an infection after the latest round of chemotherapy. (Reporting by Mariel Cristaldo and Daniela Desantis; Writing by Luis Andres Henao; Editing by Eric Beech)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
