EDWARD Kennedy, the brother of assassinated US president John F Kennedy and one of the United States' best-known politicians, has a malignant brain tumour, doctors confirmed last night.
The senator, 76, was flown to hospital in Boston at the weekend after suffering a seizure.
Last night, doctors said that tests had revealed a tumour in the left parietal lobe of Mr Kennedy's brain.
His treatment will be decided after more
tests, but the standard course includes combinations of radiation and chemotherapy.
Mr Kennedy, who is also known by his nickname, Ted, was airlifted from his home on Cape Cod on Saturday.
"He has had no further seizures, remains in good overall condition and is up and walking around the hospital," said a joint statement issued by Dr Lee Schwamm, vice-chairman of the department of neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Dr Larry Ronan, Mr Kennedy's family doctor.
The doctors said that Mr Kennedy would remain in the hospital "for the next couple of days according to routine protocol". They added that "he remains in good spirits and full of energy".
Mr Kennedy's wife and children have been with him at the hospital each day.
His son, Patrick Kennedy, a Democratic congressman, plans to stay at the hospital for the time being.
"Obviously it's tough news for any son to hear," said Robin Costello, his spokeswoman.
"He's comforted by the fact that his dad is such a fighter, and if anyone can get through something as challenging as this, it would be his father.
"So he's optimistic, he's hopeful, but obviously he's concerned."
Mr Kennedy's doctors said that the tumour was a malignant glioma.
According to the Society for Neuroscience, about 20,000 Americans are diagnosed with a glioma every year and more than half die within 18 months.
The tumour can cause a range of symptoms, including seizures, headaches and unexplained vomiting.
Certain types of chemotherapy can get into the brain to attack the tumour, but radiation is also used to directly kill the tumour cells.
Mr Kennedy, the second-longest serving member of the US Senate and a dominant figure in national Democratic Party politics, was elected for Massachusetts in November 1962 – shortly after turning the requisite 30 years of age – to replace his brother, who had been elected president in 1960.
Joseph, his eldest brother, was killed in a plane crash during the Second World War. President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 and his brother, Robert, was assassinated in 1968.
Mr Kennedy maintains an aggressive schedule in Congress and across Massachusetts.
He made several campaign appearances for the Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in February, and April.
Last night, a White House spokeswoman said that George Bush, the US president, was "deeply saddened and would keep Senator Kennedy in his prayers".
News of the diagnosis rocked Mr Kennedy's colleagues on both sides of the political divide.
"I'm really sad," said former Democratic senator Bob Kerrey.
"He's the one politician who brings tears to my eyes when he speaks."
Senator John Warner, a Republican who has been friends with Mr Kennedy for 40 years, added: "I am so deeply saddened I have lost the words."
FACT BOX• FIRST elected in 1962, Edward Kennedy is the second-longest serving member in the current US Senate and has served longer than all but two other senators in history.
• He is the last surviving of four Kennedy brothers, including president John F Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963, and Robert Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968 during his presidential bid. Both brothers also served in the US Senate.
• Edward Kennedy's one try for the White House ended in failure in 1980, when he took on a sitting president of his own party, Jimmy Carter. His presidential ambitions were haunted by an accident at the Massachusetts island of Chappaquiddick in 1969, when his car plunged off a bridge and his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, drowned.
• Kennedy became involved in the 2008 presidential race by endorsing Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination.
• He is the father of Congressman Patrick Kennedy, of Rhode Island, and has two other children from his marriage to Joan, which ended in divorce. He took on the role of surrogate father to his murdered brothers' 13 children. He married Victoria Reggie in 1992.
• One of his more famous statements came in his eulogy to his brother Robert. "My brother need not be idealised, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life. He should be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it."
The full article contains 792 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
