Next up for Kennedy: Chemo, radiation

Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., a longtime friend of Kennedy’s, said Kennedy threw himself into helping find treatment options in much the same way he searched for cures when son Edward Jr. faced bone cancer at age 12 and daughter Kara had lung cancer five years ago.

He went so far was to pull Kara out of Johns Hopkins and brought her to a Boston hospital when he was not satisfied with her initial course of treatment. In his own case, he met on Friday with family and doctors at Mass General and decided then to head to Duke for treatment, Delahunt said.

The outlook for patients with malignant gliomas is poor. Median survival for patients with moderately severe ones is three to five years, and less than a year those with the most severe type.

Surgery is rarely a cure but is considered the best option for extending life. But because of the risks, especially in someone as old as Kennedy, doctors sometimes advise against it.

In Friedman, Kennedy picked “one of the thought leaders” in the field of neuro-oncology, said Dr. Otis Brawley, the top doctor at the American Cancer Society. Dr. Matthew Ewend, chief of neurosurgery at the University of North Carolina, said: “He’s an excellent surgeon. His patients are in very good hands.”

Next: radiation
Typical radiation treatment is five days a week for a month, using 3-D imaging techniques that narrowly deliver the beams to the tumor, affecting as little surrounding tissue as possible.

“After completing treatment, I look forward to returning to the United States Senate and to doing everything I can to help elect Barack Obama as our next president,” Kennedy said is a statement issued before the surgery.

Kennedy spoke on Sunday with Connecticut Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd, one of his closest friends. But in his typical fighter’s style, there was little talk about the cancer or his impending surgery. Instead, it was all about a pair of legislative measures — on mental health care and education — that Kennedy has been working on for months.

“He wants to get them done and he expects to be here when they are done,” Dodd said. “He plans on coming back as soon as the doctors will let him.”

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