Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg reads from a small book version of the U.S. Constitution while talking about constitutional law in Princeton, N.J., in this Oct. 23, 2008, file photo. She has been hospitalized for surgery for pancreatic cancer.

Washington ? Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had surgery Thursday for pancreatic cancer, raising the possibility that one of the ideologically divided court’s leading liberals — and its only woman — might have to curtail her work or even step down before she had planned.

Ginsburg, 75, has been a justice since 1993. She has been increasingly vocal in recent years about the court’s more conservative stances, especially after the appointments made by President George W. Bush.

Pancreatic cancer is often deadly, although the court said doctors apparently found Ginsburg’s growth at an early stage.

In 1999, she had colon cancer surgery, underwent radiation and chemotherapy, and never missed a day on the bench. Statistics suggest this could be a tougher fight.

Ginsburg underwent the surgery at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. She will remain in the hospital for seven to 10 days, said her surgeon, Dr. Murray Brennan, according to the court. The justices hold their next private conference on Feb. 20 and return to the bench from their winter break on Feb. 23.

President Barack Obama expressed hope for her speedy recovery, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday, and offered his thoughts and prayers.

If Ginsburg or another justice leaves the court, it falls to Obama to pick a successor. Anyone he might choose to replace her probably would be as liberal as she, if not more so, keeping in place the 5-4 conservative tilt of the court.

Ginsburg is only the second female justice in the nation’s history. The other was Sandra Day O’Connor, who retired in 2006, and Ginsburg has lamented being the only woman on the court.

In the spring of 2007, she vented her frustration with the court’s increasingly conservative tone by writing two sharp dissents that were made even more notable by her decision to read from them in the courtroom.

Ginsburg was born in New York City. She’s a lover of opera and is perhaps personally closest on the court to her ideological opposite, Antonin Scalia. The justices have vacationed together — a photo in her office shows the two atop an elephant — and routinely mark New Year’s Eve with an elaborate meal prepared by their spouses.

Ginsburg was a federal appeals court judge in Washington before President Bill Clinton appointed her. She served as a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union before that and argued six cases before the high court.

The new cancer was discovered during a routine, annual exam late last month at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. A CAT scan revealed a tumor measuring about 1 centimeter across at the center of the pancreas, the court said.

The court offered few details about the operation or her anticipated course of treatment.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly cancers. Nearly 38,000 cases a year are diagnosed and overall less than 5 percent of patients survive five years.