Sen. Kennedy's Brain Tumor Surgery Called a 'Success'

June 3 -- MONDAY, June 2 (HealthDay News) -- Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's doctors said Monday that they had completed a "successful" three-and-a-half hour surgery to treat his malignant brain tumor.

"I am pleased to report that Senator Kennedy's surgery was successful and accomplished our goals," Dr. Allan Friedman said in a statement, the Boston Globe reported.

Friedman, considered one of the nation's leading neurosurgeons, said Kennedy had been awake during the operation and "should therefore experience no permanent neurological effects from the surgery," the newspaper said.

Asked by his wife, Vicki, how he felt after the surgery, Kennedy said, "I feel like a million bucks. I think I'll do that again tomorrow," the senator's office said, the Globe reported.

The 76-year-old senator underwent surgery for a malignant glioma, an especially lethal type of brain tumor, at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C. Friedman is neurosurgeon-in-chief at Duke.

After a brief period of recuperation, Kennedy will undergo radiation and chemotherapy treatments at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

The surgery was considered the most aggressive approach that Kennedy could select to treat his tumor. The decision to opt for surgery was considered something of a surprise, the Globe reported, because Kennedy's doctors did not mention surgery as an option after the tumor diagnosis was announced almost two weeks ago. Instead, Kennedy's doctors said the focus of treatment would be radiation and chemotherapy.

Specifics about Kennedy's particular type of tumor haven't been disclosed. Some cancer specialists said the tumor appears likely to be a glioblastoma multiforme -- a serious and tough-to-remove type -- because other kinds of brain tumors are more common in younger people, the Associated Press reported.

Still, cancer experts said Kennedy faces a difficult struggle.

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"In the more aggressive gliomas, the outlook is not good," said Dr. Leonard Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer at the American Cancer Society. "This is a serious situation with a difficult outlook."

Dr. Eugene Flamm, chair of the department of neurosurgery at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, said a patient with this type of brain tumor typically dies in about a year. "Some patients will die in less than a year, and others may live for two years," he said.

"No matter where the glioblastoma is located, it's not curable. When I talk to patients, I don't talk about cure. I talk about trying to control the tumor," Flamm said.

Dr. Ania Pollack, a neurosurgeon at the University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City, agreed. "Life expectancy for a man Senator Kennedy's age with such a tumor is about 12 to 14 months," she said.

While there hasn't been much improvement in survival, there are experimental treatments, Pollack noted. These include immuno treatments and targeted chemotherapy and local radiation therapy, she said.

In fact, a study presented Monday at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Chicago reported that an experimental cancer vaccine is showing promise against the same general type of brain tumor diagnosed in Sen. Kennedy. The vaccine, when given with chemotherapy, more than doubled progression-free survival in patients with glioblastoma multiforme tumors -- from 6.4 months to 16.6 months.