The deadly assassin named cancer

Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy was diagnosed with a malignant glioma in his front parietal lobe.

My father, after being diagnosed with lung cancer in September 2004, was further diagnosed with gliomas similar to Sen. Kennedy's in May of 2005. We thought he had food poisoning, because he vomited a lot, but under further diagnosis, the doctors at the (fantastic) Dana Farber Cancer Institute discovered the gliomas. My father, after undergoing six regimens of chemotherapy, told us it was a very tiny cell and it was nothing to worry about - the radiation he would be getting would take care of it.

I can tell you first hand that malignant gliomas, even though they may look small and harmless, are nothing to trifle with. Radiation, plus the gliomas, effectively scrambled my father's brains, and caused other complications such as hematomas, headaches, and loss of physical coordination. By September 2005, he was wheelchair bound, but still somewhat lucid, and actually looked like he was getting better. However, once the cancer spread to his spine, we knew it would be a matter of time. We planned his funeral in October, thinking he'd survive until at least after Christmas. He died two days before Thanksgiving, after celebrating his 35th wedding anniversary, at the age of 63.

The time span between my father's diagnosis and death was five months.

Seizures are also a potential calling card for gliomas. My father's were not the grand mal seizures, but what they call "partial focal" seizures, which I can best describe as daydreaming with difficulty rousing. Sen. Kennedy could have also had the traditional grand-mal, which are also known as "tonic-clonic."

JFK and RFK found their lives snuffed out through a killer's bullet. Cancer is no less an killer, but it does so at its own leisure, biding its time to wreak havoc through the body. Time will tell whether Sen. Kennedy will beat this medical assassin. Miracles may happen, but don't count on them.