Posted on 06/02/2008 4:20:13 AM PDT by SE Mom
WASHINGTON - Senator Edward M. Kennedy will undergo surgery Monday at Duke University Medical Center for his cancerous brain tumor, his office said.
The 76-year-old senator was diagnosed last month with a malignant glioma, an especially lethal type of brain tumor. A statement from the Massachusetts Democrat's office said he will be operated on Monday morning in Durham, North Carolina, by Dr. Allan Friedman. After the surgery, he will undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatment.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
He’s in my prayers. God will sort him out.
I agree. He and his family are in my prayers.
Agreed. Ditto.
Didn’t we read this was an inoperable tumor when the news first broke? Apparently he’s gotten several opinions and decided to go for aggressive treatment.
He and his family are in my prayers.
on the operating table for his very life, forty years to the week of the end of his own brother's life in California (as Hilary would remind us). ........
Best of luck to him and his family. Cancer is a nasty disease.
I had thought that surgery and chemo were somewhat mutually exclusive, depending on the stage; surgery being the better choice if you have that option. Guess he wants to just cover all the bases, money being no obstacle.
Prayer bump
Tough days ahead for him and his family. Prayers....
Isn't he now doing what he wants to DENY every other American, with his single payer system?
Will anyone in the media point this out?
My sister-in-law had surgery performed by the same Dr. Allan Friedman in early April for a brain tumor that had been diagnosed over 6 years ago that had started to grow back. The original surgery was done by a doctor in Atlanta and he only got about 60% of it. Friedman got all of the new growth and “almost all” of the old growth as well. She is now undergoing chemo and radiation under the care of Dr. Henry Friedman (no relation to Allan) at Duke’s Tisch Brain Tumor Center.
Kennedy is under the care of the best doctors in the world at Duke.
“I had thought that surgery and chemo were somewhat mutually exclusive, depending on the stage;...”
Not at all. If the tumor were benign, then the hope would be to remove the entire tumor via surgery, and then be able to avoid chemotherapy and radiation. If the tumor were benign, even if they were unable to remove the entire tumor, they might leave the rest alone.
But in the case of a malignant tumor, chemotherapy and radiation are anticipated when it's believed that surgery won't remove the entire tumor.
sitetest
Given that the type of cancer he has is essentially fatal within 5-years, I guess it makes sense to try absolutely anything, even something with virtually no chance of real success.
I’ve actually prayed for him and his family, and that is something I never thought I would say.
I agree with you xsmommy, God will sort him out.
Isn’t Duke a little risky for the Senator? They should make sure no “exotic dancers” visit his room.
Although I can rarely if ever agree with him, he is in my prayers too.
Good luck to Uncle Teddy, but does this mean the RATS are going to have ONE MORE incapacitated member of the senate to have to keep on life support? If tnese turds had any honor or self-respect, they’d resign their seats if they ran for higher office (say, POTUS) or became too ill to serve.
I wouldn’t wish Teddy’s disease on my worst enemy, but c’mon, there’s got to be a line drawn somewhere.
Kennedy has a history of seeking top medical care available for his family. He pulled daughter Kara out of Johns Hopkins and brought her to a Boston hospital when he was not satisfied with the initial course of treatment she was getting for lung cancer five years ago.
What I heard on F&F this morning was that the surgery was to remove some of the mass of cancerous tissue that was causing pressure to build up inside the brain. This will allow radiation and chemo to attack the cancer and not have as its main goal shrinking the tumor.
Prayers for him, his family, his medical team. He will go when it is his time to go but some ways of going are harder than others. I don’t wish him a harder time.
On the socialized medicine cracks that seem to permeate these threads I have one thing to remind you.
The House and Senate have their own taxpayer paid medical insurance. It is the best your money can buy.
Yes — prayers for Ted Kennedy —— for the surgeons skill, the Senator’s recovery, and the treatment to come. I sincerely wish him well.
(As a side issue, I hope this makes him think a little more on the medical issue in this country.)
Medicine isn’t socialist at Duke but everything else is.
Since Kennedy’s fellow liberals in the WHO have ranked the USA 31st out of 191 in quality of health care, I sure hope he gets the help he needs in Cuba, France, Canada, etc. Bon voyage, Teddy. And, if you live, please don’t come back.
Yes that is what I heard also. I also heard that it was a stage 4 which is a glioblastoma the very worse stage. My brother-in-law at age 54 had a glioblastoma. They wouldn't do surgery on him at Kaiser. They tried radiation, chemo, but it was awful and finally he quit. He lived a little over a year after diagnosis.
if he had National Health Care he would NOT be able to get this surgery.
If it's GOT to work, it can't be socialist. Especially evident in medicine, but not limited to it.
Which is why the most ardent socialists (such as Teddy) are in no hurry to bind themselves with the chains they would fasten on the rest of us.
Duke is the premier location for treatment of primary brain tumors. Kennedy is not going down without a fight. Good on him for spending the past week doing what he loves—sailing and spending time with his family.
My first thought was his age and having this type of surgery. Prayers to the Sen. & family
If Kennedy shows any signs of distress, discontinuing the procedure would be a probable action.
If anyone can surgically prolong Kennedy's quality and length of life, it is Dr. Friedman.
one can only hope he has better luck with his brain surgery than his sister had
I was in Durham today and you would have thought it was JFK having brain surgery. As Neal Boortz said he may have a brain tumor but Mary Jo Kopeche is still dead.
It is expected that if the procedure is successful, Edward Kennedy will become a woman according to Massachusetts law.
Did Kennedy’s sister have a brain tumor also? And when was this?
In our family there’s a history of brain tumors. Two of my fathers brothers had brain tumors. One of them died from it and the other had a brain tumor twice. First time he had surgery and was good for 20+ years before the second one came. Cause of death for him was a ruptured brain aneurism tho.
Rosemary had an undesired growth in her head called a frontal lobe so her dad had it removed.
Ahh. I see...
I believe inoperable in this case means the tumor was not able to be completely removed. They were able to remove pieces of it that were pressing on areas controlling a couple important parts of his brain. I believe one of the areas controls speech. It will grow back, I imagine.
I noticed in videos of him leaving the hospital one side of his body looked odd. He didn’t move that arm. Not even to grasp the arms of people whose hands he was shaking or to fully embrace those whom he hugged. He did everything with just the one hand and arm. Wonder if the tumor is affecting motor control on one side?
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