Munster - Mrs Raisa Gorbachev (67), wife of the former Soviet leader, is able to "get up and walk a little", the doctor treating her for acute leukemia at clinic in the German city, said.
Dr Thomas Buchner said if she continued to improve "she could soon have a bone marrow transplant". This would not be in the next two weeks but, Dr Buchner said, "we are moving towards our immediate goal, the absence of symptoms".
Mrs Gorbachev has already received chemotherapy at the clinic where she has been hospitalised since July 26th.
Her sister, Ms Ludmilla Titorenko, came in August from Russia and is now at the clinic preparing for a possible bone marrow transplant.
Mr Mikhail Gorbachev said news of his wife's cancer came as an utter shock, "like snow in July", but that he remained hopeful she would recover.