A cancerous brain
tumor caused the seizure that Sen. Edward M. Kennedy
suffered over the weekend, doctors said Tuesday in a grim
diagnosis for one of American politics' most enduring
figures.
Doctors for the
Massachusetts Democrat say tests conducted after Kennedy
suffered a seizure this weekend show a tumor in his left
parietal lobe. Preliminary results from a biopsy of
the brain identified the cause of the seizure as a
malignant glioma.
His treatment
will be decided after more tests, but the usual course
includes combinations of radiation and chemotherapy.
''I'm really
sad,'' former Democratic senator Bob Kerrey of
Nebraska said when told in a Senate hallway about
Kennedy's condition. ''He's the one politician who
brings tears to my eyes when he speaks.''
The 76-year-old
senator has been hospitalized in Boston since Saturday,
when he was airlifted from Cape Cod after a seizure at his
home.
''He has had no
further seizures, remains in good overall condition, and
is up and walking around the hospital,'' according to a
joint statement issued by Lee Schwamm, vice chairman
of the Department of Neurology at Massachusetts
General Hospital, and Larry Ronan, Kennedy's primary
care physician.
The doctors said
Kennedy will remain in the hospital ''for the next
couple of days, according to routine protocol.''
''He remains in
good spirits and full of energy,'' they said.
Kennedy's wife
and children have been with him each day but have made no
public statements.
Malignant gliomas
are a type of brain cancer diagnosed in about 9,000
Americans a year -- and the most common type among adults.
It's a starting diagnosis: How well patients fare
depends on what specific tumor type is determined by
further testing.
Average survival
can range from less than a year for very advanced and
aggressive types -- such as glioblastomas -- or to about
five years for different types that are
slower-growing.
Kennedy, the
second-longest-serving member of the Senate and a dominant
figure in national Democratic Party politics, was elected in
1962, filling out the term won by his brother, John F.
Kennedy.
Kennedy's eldest
brother, Joseph, was killed in a World War II airplane
crash. President John Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, and
his brother Robert was assassinated in 1968.
Kennedy is active
for his age, maintaining an aggressive schedule on
Capitol Hill and across Massachusetts. He made several
campaign appearances for Illinois senator and
presidential candidate Barack Obama in February and
most recently in April.
Kennedy, the
senior senator from Massachusetts, was reelected in 2006 and
is not up for election again until 2012.
Were he to resign
or die in office, state law requires a special election
for the seat no sooner than 145 days and no later than 160
days after the vacancy occurs. (Glen Johnson, AP)
