RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Joining us now from Boston is NPR health correspondent Richard Knox. And Richard, remind us what kind of brain cancer that the senator has been diagnosed with.
RICHARD KNOX: They haven't officially said the subtype, but they've called it a malignant glioma, which is - comes from the cells called glial cells that support the thinking cells of the brain, called neurons. It's widely assumed from what we know that this is a subtype called a glioblastoma, which is a bad kind of cancer to get. It is the most common in patients of Kennedy's age, which is 76.
MONTAGNE: And what do we know of his treatment? Obviously he's undergoing brain surgery.
KNOX: The purpose of the surgery is not to remove the entire tumor - you usually can't do that with these kind of tumors, because they have these tentacles - but to reduce it in size, and that may give a better chance that radiation and chemotherapy can bring the tumor under control.
MONTAGNE: And as the news of the senator's illness has unfolded, there's been a lot of talk about his prognosis. Is there anything to indicate exactly what Senator Kennedy's prognosis will be?
KNOX: The short answer is no. Professor Friedland's Web site, I noticed this morning, says flatly that patients with glioblastoma have a life expectancy of less than a year, but there's a lot of variability. And one woman I talked to last week is well five years after her diagnosis, so there are new treatments and more patients are doing better than they used to.
MONTAGNE: Richard, thanks very much.
KNOX: You're welcome.
MONTAGNE: NPR health correspondent Richard Knox, on news that Senator Ted Kennedy is undergoing brain surgery this morning for a cancerous tumor. And we'll continue to follow this story and bring you more as we learn it. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
