McCain diagnosed with aggressive, deadly brain cancer
2-inch blood clot removed during craniotomy last week
U.S. Sen. John McCain has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer, following surgery to remove what testing showed was a glioblastoma tumor last Friday.
That form of cancer is the most aggressive type that begins in the brain, with early symptoms that may include personality changes, headaches, and symptoms similar to those of a stroke.
The seriousness of the disease puts in doubt McCain's return to the U.S. Senate any time soon.
The 80-year-old Republican senator from Arizona had a two-inch blood clot removed from his brain above his left eye last week. Surgeons at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix performed the operation, which required a craniotomy near his eyebrow.
Pathology "revealed that a primary brain tumor known as a glioblastoma was associated with the blood clot," his doctors said in a statement released by his office Wednesday evening.
Scans since the operation showed the "tissue of concern was completely resected," they said.
McCain and his family "are reviewing further treatment options with his Mayo Clinic care team. Treatment options may include a combination of chemotherapy and radiation," the statement from his office said.
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Glioblastomas generally recur, despite surgery and cancer treatments, and most patients live 12-15 months after diagnosis. Less than 3-5 percent live longer than five years, with those patients who are not treated dying within three months.
McCain's doctors said he "is recovering from his surgery ‘amazingly well’ and his underlying health is excellent," the statement said.
McCain had the surgery following an annual physical, doctors said last week.
"Surgeons successfully removed the 5-cm blood clot during a minimally invasive craniotomy with an eyebrow incision," the Mayo doctors said on Saturday. "Tissue pathology reports are pending within the next several days."
The statements released by McCain's office did not detail the location of the clot that was removed, nor what symptoms may have prompted the testing that led doctors to operate.
McCain "is in good spirits as he continues to recover at home with his family in Arizona," his office said.
"The news of my father's illness has affected every one of us in the McCain family," said his daughter, Meghan McCain. "My grandmother, mother, brothers, sisters and I have all endured the shock of the news, and now we live with the anxiety about what comes next," she said. "It won't surprise you to learn that in all this, the one of us who is most confident and calm is my father. He is the toughest person I know."
Over the weekend, McCain's office said he would remain in the state for a week to recover before returning to Washington, D.C.
With the news of the cancer diagnosis, his office said that "further consultations with Sen. McCain's Mayo Clinic care team will indicate when he will return to the United States Senate."
McCain's absence hampered the ability of GOP Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to push legislation to repeal Obamacare and cut taxes on the wealthy. McConnell had announced last week that he would cut in half the traditional August recess of the Senate, pushing it back by two weeks in order to take action on Republican priorities.
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With McCain out, and other GOP senators declaring that they would not vote for the Republican "repeal and replace" legislation, McConnell's plans fell apart early this week.
McCain's office said he is "grateful to the doctors and staff at Mayo Clinic for their outstanding care, and is confident that any future treatment will be effective."
He has had less-aggressive cancers before. McCain had surgery to remove Stage IIa melanoma in 2000, including removing the lymph nodes on the left side of his neck. He has had four operations to remove skin cancers since 1993, and at least one non-cancerous mole removed as a precaution, in 2008.
