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John McCain diagnosed with brain tumor — 19 Comments

  1. I, too, have my disagreements with Senator McCain. But I laud him for his service and especially how he conducted himself in his prisoner of war experience. I said a prayer for him this morning at Mass.

  2. I hope that he recovers as quickly as possible; and retires immediately. The GOP, and the country, need a full complement of functional Senators right now. Unfortunately, a senate friend quoted him saying “I’ll be back”.

    Of course I have wanted him to retire for some time now.

    I have had the opportunity to know a few POWs. Most, if not all, of them endured extreme hardship with extraordinary courage; and returned with minimal individual fanfare.

  3. How terrible. I actually voted for him when I voted for Palin.

    The venom from both sides of the aisle is shocking. He served his country, has tried to do the right thing (although I disagree with many of his stands) and deserves respect.

    I will pray for him as well.

  4. As an oncologist, I can say there is ZERO hope for “recovery”, though possibly some prolongation of survival.
    This glioblastoma, GBM in the trade, is left frontal; he is right-handed, I believe, so this is his dominant frontal lobe, the seat of higher cognitive functions. And he has been reported as speaking oddly and asking odd questions at hearings lately. His diagnosis must be deemed delayed.

    Length of survival is a function of age with this brain tumor; the older one is, the shorter the projected survival. For those in their 50s, median survival is now in the almost three-year range with resection of as much as possible, followed by chemo and radiation. Forty years ago,survival was in the 20 month range, so this is one tough puppy. One is always checked by the risk of brain damage from either surgery or radiation. Back in the 1960s removal of the involved half of the brain was done in a few cases, with the consequent paralysis, but no improved survival.
    This tumor can cross to the right side via the anterior corpus callosum, and extend posteriorly into the motor cortex, causing motor deficits on the right hemi-body in McCain’s case.
    At McCain’s age, 14 mo. survival is optimistic. Remember, that figure means MEDIAN survival, the time at which 50% of the cohort is dead.

    Teddy Kennedy had the same tumor and with excellent multi-institutional care had much better than median survival for his age. But that entailed more than one craniotomy, some treatment in Boston, some at Duke in NC. And he was largely nonfunctional as a Senator for most of that period. Scott Brown won his seat, but Reid refused to seat him until Obamacare, which Brown opposed, was passed by the barest minimum # of votes, 60. Remember?
    McCain is therefore done as a Senator. He should resign promptly so a successor can be named to vote on legislation, but I doubt McCain’s rather large ego will allow that, refusing to acknowledge cognitive impairment.

  5. The Vietnam POWs went through hell. Just being locked up in solitary for many years is bad, but they were subjected to real torture – the kind that results in lifelong crippling. But for the grace of God I could have been one of them. I doubt I would have acquitted myself as well as McCain did.

    I have disagreed with McCain on many political issues as well, but my admiration for his Naval service has never waned.

    This is devastating news for him and his family. My thoughts and prayers are for them all. I hope that the time remaining to him is filled with family and love.

  6. As with a lot of you I voted for McCain/Palin and if the press had not been so vicious they might have had a better chance and if elected done a decent job but that did not happen.

    I admired John McCain the warrior who was an Admiral’s son and went in harm’s way and paid a very dear price. He is indeed a war hero.

    I am afraid as the years went by he mellowed and tried to be a peace keeper meeting in the middle with people who never meet in the middle. Any compromise they consider a weakness and they take what you give them and then they demand more because the have already received a bit.

    Having said all of that I do wish him well and know that his outcome is dim, cancer is a bitch. I have been down that road three times working now with part of one kidney and at times waiting for the other shoe to drop.

    My prayers, and yes I am a go to church Christian who pray and believes in the power of prayer, go out to John McCain and his family. My thanks go out to a man who did his duty for his country.

  7. A relative of mine in his 50s – well able to afford the very best in medical care and to find the newest and most promising treatments and clinical trials – was diagnosed with glioblastoma late in the fall and dead by early spring. It’s a vicious, hideous disease. Based on my relative’s experience, I think it’s unlikely that, following the tumor and the surgery, McCain will retain the judgment capacity to realize that he should step down.

    I have often disliked or disagreed with McCain, but you can’t help respecting his history – unless you’re Trump, of course, whose remarks about him I find almost impossible to understand or forgive. The inimitable David Foster Wallace wrote a thoughtful, remarkable essay about McCain’s 2000 primary campaign that is well worth reading if you want to know more about the complicated political conundrum that is McCain. There’s a version of it here:
    https://justpaste.it/weaselshrub and what I think is a longer version in Wallace’s collection “Consider the Lobster.”

    I wish him whatever may be the best and kindest outcome.

  8. Again to all above re GBM:

    Big new clinical studies with ZIOP as the leader. Superstar doc is the CEO and they have a big deal with MD Anderson in Houston.

  9. As a non-oncologist, glioblastoma is one of the last diagnoses I would want to hear. That never turns out well in my reading.

    An interesting woman, Joan Targ, daughter of Bobby Fischer’s sister and Russell Targ, the Stanford parapsychologist, followed in her father’s footsteps as a parapsychologist. She did a study of the effect of prayer on glioblastoma then developed the disease herself.

    Weird.

    Anyway she had a three-ring circus of New Age people trying to heal her but she died anyway.

  10. Not sure he’ll retire — this just released:

    STATEMENT BY SASC CHAIRMAN JOHN McCAIN ON REPORTS REGARDING PROGRAM TO ASSIST THE SYRIAN OPPOSITION

    Washington, D.C. ­— U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, released the following statement today on reports that the administration is ending a program to assist the Syrian opposition:

    “If these reports are true, the administration is playing right into the hands of Vladimir Putin. Making any concession to Russia, absent a broader strategy for Syria, is irresponsible and short-sighted. The administration has yet to articulate its vision for Syria beyond the defeat of ISIL, let alone a comprehensive approach to the Middle East. A key pillar of American strategy must be the removal of Assad from power as part of an end to the brutal conflict in Syria, which has fueled ISIL’s growth through its cruelty, extended malign Iranian influence, and undermined broader regional stability. Six months into this administration, there is still no new strategy for victory in Afghanistan either. It is now mid-July, when the administration promised to deliver that strategy to Congress, and we are still waiting.”

    And he tweeted this today: “I greatly appreciate the outpouring of support — unfortunately for my sparring partners in Congress, I’ll be back soon, so stand-by!”

  11. Re the person above who linked scurrilous articles about John McCain – go to hell. We can disagree with his politics and dislike his personality, but he endured torture as a prisoner of war while acting to defend us. Attacking a war hero diagnosed with terminal cancer is about as low as you can go.

  12. The Other Chuck: Your remark requires a modest correction.
    In no way was Vietnam a war of defense for America. It was a war to defend the South Vietnamese from the assault by Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh (remember the leftist chant?) and the ChiComm-supported North Vietnam.

    What makes a military hero? What defines heroism? Was McCain in ‘Nam a Sgt. York equivalent? York risked life and limb many times in accomplishing victories in combat and saving lives of his fellow soldiers. Was York an equal to those that suffered in the trenches, getting gassed or getting trench foot or both, never being able to ‘take it to the enemy’?

    McCain was a victim of the horrendous brutality of communism that was also meted out by the North after the Democrats in DC reneged on their solemn promise to fund the South in its defense, and so delivered all of Vietnam into communist hands. The thousands of ‘boat people’ who drowned in flight, remember?

    It has thus always puzzled me that McCain so often crossed the aisle to collude with the party of the anti-war perpetrators, the Dems.

    Finally, let us remember the Keating Five, five Senators who took money from Keating in his 1980s campaign to save his failing bank. McCain took the most money, and the Senate Ethics Committee found him guilty of only “poor judgment.” Comey said the same thing about Hillary last year.

    Oddly, the McCain statement posted above by Ann refers to “ISIL”. Only the Obamacrats used that, instead of ISIS. Curious.

    I post none of this in animus, but in the interest of facts and, possibly, discussion.

  13. Frog and Parker, your remarks may well be true. McCain certainly is man of many personal flaws, which I think is beside the point when discussing his current and final struggle. None of us are going to ignore his mixed political record, but this isn’t the time to pile on.

    As to war hero status, that he risked his life, was shot down, wounded, captured by the enemy and tortured unmercifully, is beyond question. If you want to lessen that by saying he wasn’t really defending this country, only South Vietnam, then you fall into the category of the anti-war left. He was a member of the United States military charged with defending this country and its interests, which he did at great and lasting personal risk and sacrifice.

  14. Way to be like Kennedy, McCain, dying with a brain tumor or some such thing.

  15. The first is that he’s tough, and the second is that it appears his tumor may have been diagnosed earlier than usual and before he had any symptoms except a blood clot and some problems mild enough that most people would not even have gone to a doctor about them. He was visiting the physician as part of routine periodic screenings he has for possible recurrence of the melanomas that have plagued him for about nearly two decades.

    Congress is immune to O care, that is why they still have gold/silver plated plans, which allows them almost unfettered access to medical sources such as pre diagnostic scans for cancer.

    The rest of you Americans can apparently die in a ditch and your DC overlords will merely toast good riddance.

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