Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Update from yesterday

Ted Kennedy Diagnosed With Malignant Brain Tumor

BOSTON - Sen. Edward M. Kennedy has been released from the hospital and is heading to his Cape Cod home after being diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor.
The 76-year-old Kennedy waved to a crowd of well-wishers and gave a thumbs-up as he walked out of Massachusetts General Hospital amid heavy security. His dogs greeted him at the hospital door.

Doctors said Wednesday the Massachusetts Democrat “has recovered remarkably quickly” from a brain biopsy conducted Monday. Kennedy will recuperate at home while the doctors await further test results and determine his treatment plan.

Kennedy has a malignant glioma in his left parietal lobe. Experts say such tumors are almost always fatal.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

BOSTON (AP)—Doctors said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy would be released from the hospital on Wednesday after being diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor that experts say is almost certainly fatal.

His doctors said the Massachusetts Democrat “has recovered remarkably quickly” from a biopsy conducted after he suffered a seizure last weekend at his home on Cape Cod. He will await further test results and treatment options while convalescing at his home over the Memorial Day weekend, the doctors said in a statement.

The 76-year-old senator, the last son in a famed political family, was diagnosed with a malignant glioma in his left parietal lobe—which helps govern sensation, movement and language—after suffering a seizure in his home Saturday morning.

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.

His wife, Vicki Kennedy, told friends the grim diagnosis was “a real curveball” that left his family stunned even as he joked and laughed with them, but expressed pride in how her husband was handling the news.

“Teddy is leading us all, as usual, with his calm approach to getting the best information possible,” she wrote in an e-mail Tuesday to friends.

“He’s also making me crazy (and making me laugh) by pushing to race in the Figawi this weekend,” she wrote, referring to the annual sailing race from Cape Cod to Nantucket.

The diagnosis cast a pall over Capitol Hill, where the Massachusetts Democrat has served since 1962.

Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., the longest-serving member of the Senate, wept as he prayed for “my dear, dear friend, dear friend, Ted Kennedy” during a speech on the Senate floor.

“Keep Ted here for us and for America,” said the 90-year-old Byrd, who is in a wheelchair. He added: “Ted, Ted, my dear friend, I love you and I miss you.”

In a statement, President Bush saluted Kennedy as “a man of tremendous courage, remarkable strength and powerful spirit.” He added: “We join our fellow Americans in praying for his full recovery.”

Kennedy has been active for his age, maintaining an aggressive schedule on Capitol Hill and across Massachusetts. 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. “And it’s our job now to support him in the way that he has supported us for so many years.”

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said: “Ted Kennedy’s courage and resolve are unmatched, and they have made him one of the greatest legislators in Senate history. Our thoughts are with him and Vicki and we are praying for a quick and full recovery.”

Kennedy has left his stamp on a raft of health care, pension and immigration legislation during four decades in the Senate. In 1980, Kennedy unsuccessfully challenged Jimmy Carter for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The Kennedy family has been struck by tragedy over and over. Kennedy’s eldest brother, Joseph, died in a World War II plane crash; President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963; and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1968.

Ted Kennedy shocked the nation in 1969 when he drove his car off a bridge to Massachusetts’ Chappaquiddick Island and a young female campaign worker drowned. Kennedy, who did not call authorities until the next day, pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and received a suspended two-month jail sentence.

Kennedy, the Senate’s second-longest serving member, was re-elected 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 145 to 160 days afterward.

(AP)