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Source? I know quite a bit about brain tumors and I've been following the Kennedy story throughout the day. Your comment is the first and only one that has referenced melanoma. Every other story has described glioma, an aggressive primary cancerous tumor. A primary tumor means that it did not metastasize to the brain from another site. A glioma originates in the brain and grows very quickly.

Kennedy has apparently had surgical (or needle) biopsy, per Fox News radio and other outlets. If his doctors have already given a prognosis, odds are the MRI was conclusive enough to say whether the tumor is primary or metastatic.

True, there are some educated guesses involved, but in this case, it looks very bad.

Just read this on Boston(AP) Not good.

“Doctors said the senator had a malignant glioma in the left parietal lobe, a region of the brain that helps govern sensation, movement and language. 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.”