Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the sole surviving son of the Kennedy family, was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor after suffering a seizure at his home and some experts gave him no more than three years -- and perhaps far less, according to media reports Wednesday.
Doctors of the senator at Massachusetts General Hospital said he has a malignant glioma in the left parietal lobe. And he would remain in the hospital for the next couple of days as they considered chemotherapy and radiation.
Malignant gliomas are diagnosed in about 9,000 Americans a year. In general, half of all patients die within a year.
"It's treatable but not curable. You can put it into remission for a while, but it's not a curable tumor," said Dr. Suriya Jeyapalan, a neuroncologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) (L) and his niece Caroline Kenendy pass each other after Senator Kennedy introduced her at the 2008 Profiles in Courage Award ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, Massachusetts May 12, 2008. "As a general rule, at 76, without the ability to do a surgical resection, as kind of a ballpark figure you're probably looking at a survival of less than a year," said Dr. Keith Black, chairman of neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
"Teddy is leading us all, as usual, with his calm approach to getting the best information possible. He's also making me crazy (and making me laugh) by pushing to race in the Figawi this weekend," said Kennedy's wife Vicki.
The Kennedy family has been struck by tragedy over and over. Kennedy's oldest brother, Joseph, died in a World War II plane crash; President John F. Kennedy was assassinated during in 1963; and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1968.
A high point in Kennedy's life came in 1980, when he challenged Jimmy Carter for the Democratic presidential nomination. And the low point was 1969, when he pleaded guilty to leaving a scene of a car accident and received a two-month suspended sentence and a year's probation.
Kennedy has been active for his age, leaving his stamp on a raft of health care, pension and immigration legislation during four decades in the Senate. He has made several campaign appearances for Sen. Barack Obama.
"He fights for what he thinks is right. And we want to make sure that he's fighting this illness," Obama said Tuesday.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said: "Our thoughts are with him and Vicki and we are praying for a quick and full recovery."
President Bush saluted Kennedy as "a man of tremendous courage, remarkable strength and powerful spirit." "We join our fellow Americans in praying for his full recovery," he said.
Kennedy, the Senate's second-longest serving member, was re-elected in 2006 and is not up for election again until 2012.
Source:Xinhua
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article