Senator John McCain has been diagnosed with a particularly nasty form of brain cancer, it was announced tonight.
From The New York Times:
Senator John McCain of Arizona, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee known for his independent streak over more than three decades in the Senate, has brain cancer, his office disclosed Wednesday night in a statement from the Mayo Clinic.
The statement said the medical condition was discovered after Mr. McCain, 80, who was re-elected to a sixth term in November, underwent surgery to remove a blood clot above his left eye at the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix.
[...]
Dr. Eugene S. Flamm, chairman of neurosurgery at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx, said that “a glioblastoma is the most common and most malignant of brain tumors.”
The median survival is about 16 months, he said.
Fox News host Meghan McCain, Senator McCain's daughter, issued a poignant statement tonight:
Statement regarding my father @SenJohnMcCain: pic.twitter.com/SMte9Hkwkq
— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) July 20, 2017
We've had plenty of criticisms of Meghan McCain's punditry but tonight we put them aside and wish her and the rest of her family all the best.
Watch the Fox News report on the news below.
Anyone who can survive five years in a North Vietnamese POW camp can kick cancer’s ass!
“I’ve admired McCain since he gave that noble concession speech in 2008. The GOPers went ballistic……”
Especially those RACIST AND TOTALLY CLASSLESS DYED-IN-THE-WOOL REDNECKS WHO BOOED LOUDLY once McCain congratulated then President-elect Obama on the night of November 4, 2008 in his classy concession speech. I STILL REMEMBER that night like it was yesterday — John McCain himself had to chide these TOTALLY REDNECKED SORE LOSERS repeatedly and calm them down so he could finish his speech.
I’ve admired McCain since he gave that noble concession speech in 2008. The GOPers went ballistic but that was a truly American address. Recently, he joined Jeff Flake in scolding the rabid GOPers who were sending hate mail to his (Flake’s) hijab-wearing opponent for Arizona seat.
McCain’s three bouts with melanoma were all stage 0, which is unusual for such an aggressive cancer, so maybe, maybe his immune system is particularly adept at battling cancer cells.
I have a friend who was killed by an astrocytoma tumor a few years go, which is a very slightly less aggressive form of glioblastoma. He was briefly in complete remission after surgery and chemotherapy and then a lifetime’s dose of radiation to his head all at once, but it surged back with a vengeance a couple of months later.
This is a really pitiless disease, and the treatments that can extend life by maybe a few months are nightmarish. I can only wish with all my heart that McCain can be one of the very, very few who’s able to beat it. Damn.
Our thoughts and prayers to the McCain Family during this difficult period.
NOTE TO SEN. MCCAIN
You can beat this!