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May 20, 2008

Kennedy Diagnosed with Malignant Glimoa

What you have to understand is that a glioma is an aggressive central nervous system tumor, commonly arising in the brain, that kills fifty percent of its victims within a year and the vast majority within three years.  The fact that the Senator's tumor is malignant indicates a high-grade anaplastic or undifferentiated tumor.  The American Cancer Society estimates that 21,000 Americans a year are diagnosed with brain tumors;  about one-half are gliomas.

A glioblastoma is the most common brain tumor that affects adults. It is also the most rapidly growing malignant tumor of the brain, with the shortest survival rate. Death may occur within months.
 

"It's the most malignant, the most aggressive, the tumor of the brain associated with the shortest survival," said Marc Chamberlain, a professor of neurology and director of the Brain Tumor Program at University of Washington, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.

Doctors likely suspected a brain glioma when Kennedy was hospitalized with seizures and most likely made the diagnosis the same day.

Standard treatment options for glioma tumors include surgery (the mainstay - remove as much of the tumor as possible), radiation therapy and chemotherapy although there are non-standard approaches.     In the case of surgery, a craniotomy is performed and a surgeon removes the glioma.  If surgery is not an option high-energy rays (radiation) can be used to blast the tumor cells or chemotherapy applied to kill tumor cells.

Of course our thoughts are with Senator Kennedy and his family at this time of need.

Posted by Vital at May 20, 2008 8:20 PM