Sen. Ted Kennedy Undergoing Surgery At Duke; Update: Successful

Sen. Ted Kennedy, whose presence in the Senate has been a fixture since 1962, is undergoing surgery at Duke University Medical Center this morning for the malignant brain tumor discovered after Kennedy had a seizure at his home in Massachusetts last month.

It is expected that he will recuperate at Duke for about a week, before heading home to Massachusetts for additional treatment, including chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

In a statement released shortly before 6:30 a.m., Kennedy said he would be operated on by Dr. Allan Friedman at the Duke University Medical Center and expects to recuperate there for about a week.

In the weeks and months after the surgery, Kennedy will begin a regimen of radiation and chemotherapy at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, according to the statement.

Kennedy sailed in Hyannis Port Sunday morning, then flew to North Carolina with his wife, Victoria Reggie Kennedy, Sunday afternoon. He was admitted to the hospital after his arrival.

The surgery follows a meeting at Massachusetts General Hospital on Friday, during which cancer experts from around the country discussed his course of treatment. At that meeting, Kennedy's own doctors were joined by doctors from the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute, as well as Friedman himself, according to a Kennedy intimate. At the end of the meeting, there was near unanimous agreement that he would have surgery at Duke, the confidant said.

I wish him lots of luck in his course of treatment. It's a very difficult situation he and his family are in as I've lost several relatives to cancer and it can be quite painful watching a loved one succumb to the disease.

UPDATE:
Doctors have reported that the surgery was successful. Kennedy was awake during the entire 3.5 hour operation and should experience no permanent neurological effects from the surgery.

Experts said surgeons would try to remove as much of the tumor as possible while balancing the risk of harming healthy brain tissue that affects movement and speech.

“Almost no malignant gliomas are cured by surgery, but many of us believe that the more you get out, the next treatments, whether they be radiation or chemotherapy, have a better chance of working because there’s less tumor there to fight,” said Dr. Matthew Ewend, neurosurgery chief at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

The senator was expected to remain at the North Carolina facility for one week to recuperate and then will begin further treatments at Massachusetts General Hospital and start chemotherapy.