*This story was first published in May, 2008 after Senator Kennedy was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Senator Kennedy, age 77, died of malignant glioma on August 25, 2009.
This week Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s doctors announced he has a glioma, a type of brain tumor. Kennedy, 76, had a seizure on Saturday.
Glioma is a catchall term that includes many different types of tumor, including astrocytomas, oligodendrogliomas, and ependymomas, according to the American Cancer Society.
An estimated 21,810 people will be diagnosed with malignant tumors of the brain or spinal cord this year in the United States—1.3% of all cancers, responsible for 2.2% of cancer-related deaths. Gliomas make up about 40% of all brain tumors and can be benign or malignant. Kennedy’s, located in the left parietal lobe, is malignant. Gliomas are most likely to occur in those aged 75 to 84.
For insight into prognosis—and the significance of seizures and headaches in the diagnosis of brain turmors—I talked with Roshini Raj, MD, a Health magazine contributor and an assistant professor of medicine at the New York University Medical Center.
What is the significance of the glioma, and the malignancy?
About half of primary brain tumors [tumors that don’t spread from somewhere else in the body] are gliomas, and they can be very serious. Sometimes it’s a slow-growing or a low-grade tumor, but if it’s called malignant it means it’s an aggressive from of brain tumor.
Where is the parietal lobe?
It’s kind of in the top and middle. There’s the frontal lobe, which is in front where the hairline is, and there is the occipital lobe, which is in the back, where you’d put your hand on the back of your head. I would say this is in between.
How can this type of tumor affect bodily functions?
Tumors of this type can cause effects both by directly invading brain tissue and therefore destroying brain tissue, or by exerting pressure on parts of the brain. In his particular location, the parietal lobe, it could certainly affect memory, it can affect movement so it causes weakness on the right side, it can cause speech difficulties, and then, of course, seizures, which he has already had.
Is a seizure often the first sign of a brain tumor?
If someone who’s never had seizures before all of a sudden develops seizures—especially in this age group—you have to be worried about a brain tumor. However, I would say brain tumors are relatively rare compared to other types of cancer, such as colon cancer or prostate cancer.
What other symptoms are a sign of brain tumor?
We mentioned seizures, but another one is headaches. Not to make people panic—most headaches are just headaches; they are not anything like this—but if there is an unusual headache that’s in a new location, that’s very frequent, and that’s accompanied by things like vomiting or nausea or blurry vision, that could be a sign of something more serious, like a brain tumor.
It’s always important to see a doctor about a complaint like that. Maybe [the Senator’s diagnosis] can be a wake-up call for some people.
How will this be treated?
It really depends on the size and the stage of the tumor. You have to really look closely at the biopsy. Sometimes these are treated with surgery, but more often they are treated with radiation and chemotherapy.
Why are these so difficult to treat?
We know these types of tumors tend to be more aggressive, meaning they spread more easily, they grow more rapidly, and they are not as responsive to treatments such as radiation or chemotherapy. Brain tumors in general can be difficult to treat. Ideally you’d like to remove a tumor surgically, but you have to be very careful when you’re dealing with the brain in terms of how much can you remove and still preserve the functioning of the brain.
In addition, they have the ability to project and spread to other areas of the brain microscopically.
It’s been reported that Senator Kennedy could have stage 3 or 4 tumor. What does this mean?
Basically once its stage 4, that means that you’re not trying to cure the tumor, it’s not going to be possible to do that. You’re just trying to contain it and prevent any further complication, possibly shrink it, but you’re not going to be able to get rid of it.
What sort of prognosis is associated with this type of tumor?
With these kind of tumors, it’s not very good, especially stage 4. About 1 in 5 people with the most aggressive type of glioma, glioblastoma multiforme, survive for more than two years, according to the Cancer Research UK.
For more information about brain tumors, read 3 Headaches That Require Emergency Attention, check out our Health A-Z Library, or visit these specific sites: Massachusetts General Hospital; National Cancer Institute.
Comments (16)
tesji
I am glad to see it took a senator having a brain tumor to get noticed. My husband was diagonosed with a oligodendrogliomas….this has been the most difficult 7 month of our lives. Where do we turn? Where can we get financial assitance from, where do we get support. My husband’s tumor affected his speech, his reasoning skills & his decision skills.
We don’t have the money the Kennedy’s do….so what do the common people do?
I am confident that with Sen Kennedy’s hard work within the healthcare system and for the issues himself will have the very best advise available and hopefully will use ALL methods available and not necessarily Government approved..We need him so for years to come and I for one expect that to be the case!
A couple of corrections are in order. First is the misconception that only high grade glioma is malignant … false! Statistically if a patient lives long enough grade two glioma devolves into grade 3 and/or 4 over time. The other correction is brain tumors don’t have stages but rather grades. Higher grade tumors like IV are typically identified by the presence of necrosis as rapid growth quickly outstrips resources leading to cell death. About 5% of cells are in a state of division with low grade glioma whereas closer to 80% are for grade IV. Surgery remains the most effective form of treatment but unfortunately many tumors are either unoperable or only partially so given their size and location. Treatment advances have languished over the past 10 years. The drug Temodar was created back in the 80’s but is only now being touted as the chemotherapy drug of choice. Similarly the use of radiation has been around for more than 20 years with little change. The application of Avastin for brain tumors is relatively new but seems to be increasing survival period for many patients.
I realize that my comment here is long, but I hope it will be of help to some cancer patients who read it.
Like so many people, I was very sad to learn about Sen. Kennedy’s brain tumor. As Dr. Raj points out here, the statistics are pretty grim for this type of tumor: Malignant gliomas are very difficult to treat, and those who have them don’t tend to survive very long.
For instance, Dr. Raj points out that even when treated with surgery and/or chemotherapy and radiation, malignant gliomas do not respond very well, and that – with treatment — only “about 1 in 5 people with the most aggressive type of glioma, glioblastoma multiforme, survive for more than two years.”
For this reason, I am continually puzzled as to WHY most conventional doctors completely scoff at, and refuse to even consider, the possibility that an integrative treatment approach — including nutritional supplements — might actually improve glioma patients’ outcomes. They call these approaches “anecdotal.”
I am the widow of long-term survivor of a cancerous glioma. My husband Tim and I both attributed his 15-year survival — approximately 12 years beyond what was predicted by the doctors — to this kind of integrative approach.
Had we listened only Tim’s doctors when he was first diagnosed in 1990, we never would have chosen this more integrative approach, since all they told us about were the standard treatments: surgery, chemotherapy and radiation — the same three treatments offered to Sen. Kennedy 18 years later.
We did follow Tim’s doctors’ advice — but we looked further, as well. I am so glad we did. Tim underwent the three standard treatments. But we also did lots of research on our own and — with the help of a nutritionist, whose area of interest and expertise is nutritional approaches to cancer — came up with a combined approach. It seems to have worked.
Unfortunately, most oncologists and neuro-oncologists remain unaware of the ways in which the two modalities –conventional and alternative — can work well together. Several weeks ago, when Sen. Kennedy was first diagnosed, Boston neuro-oncologist Dr. Andrew Norden was asked in an interview with Boston.com, whether there were any alternative or complementary therapies that might be recommended by Mr. Kennedy’s doctors. His answer: “. . . I am not aware of any alternative therapies that help to treat the tumors, but these treatments (e.g. acupuncture, massage, others) are very useful for management of symptoms such as nausea, fatigue, and headaches that some glioma patients experience.” (The emphasis above is mine.)
The sad truth is that most conventional doctors are still unaware of the many very promising complementary treatments, in addition to the palliative ones that Dr. Norden mentioned. For instance, it’s obvious that Dr. Norden hadn’t read the scholarly article by nutritionist Dr. Jeanne Wallace, which was published in 2002 in the journal, “Integrative Cancer Therapies,” titled “Nutritional and botanical modulation of the inflammatory cascade–eicosanoids, cyclooxygenases, and lipoxygenases–as an adjunct in cancer therapy.” The abstract is online at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14664746. (Abstracts with information about many other nutritional therapies can be found online, too.) For those who are more ambitious — which I would hope would include most oncologists — Dr. Wallace’s complete 31-page article (which contains 364 footnotes/citations), may also be found online, at http://nutritional-solutions.net/Articles/ICTarticleinflamJeanne.pdf . The article provides an excellent first step for conventional physicians interested in learning about integrative approaches to the treatment of cancer.
Patients who are open to the integrative treatment of cancer — including patients with aggressive, cancerous brain tumors, like my husband’s and Ted Kennedy’s — may be able to survive much longer than the norm, with a combination of conventional and alternative treatments.
It is therefore unfortunate that more doctors don’t know about these promising “alternative” treatments — especially in cases, such as gliomas, which normally have such poor outcomes.
It’s simply not enough for doctors — and especially those who take care of cancer patients — to say that they are “not aware” of these integrative treatments. I wish they would realize that it’s very important for them to start educating themselves.
I hope my long comment here will help some cancer patients who read it.
Julia Schopick
http://www.HonestMedicine.com
As I am a diabetic i would like to no more about it? I am diabetic 2 which is treated by tablets and diet!
Thank you
Chantal
My address is
10 Laith Close Ireland Wood, Leeds West Yorkshire, UK, LS16 6LE
Just for your info,chemo is not given in brain tumour cases as it doesn’t not cross the blood brain barrier. My first mother-in-law had an adenocarcinoma on her frontal lobe. It was a secondary from a lung tumour 2 years previous. It was encapsulated,and easy to remove. She lived for many years… BUT no chemo. That is important to tell people.Doctors today need to educate themselves more. The common mistakes they make are pathetic and life threatening.
Sadly, I believe we will be seeing more gilomas and brain cancer due to cell phone usage. You can turn the cell phone off or use hollow tube headset.
I have a blog @emfreview.com
What about Cyberknife as a non invasive treatment?
Our Australian support site for Cyberknife (even though we dont even have it yet!!!)
Many people are accessing it overseas at startling results
Sorry forgot the link:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=43255564285&ref=share
I was diagnosed with a grade 3/4 astrosytoma 11 years ago, after surgery and glidial wafer implants I am still here. It’s not alwways a death sentence.
Cathy, I am so glad to hear that you are a success story! I’m talking more about grade IV Glioblastoma Multiforme. Regardless, money and resources still need to be focused on gliomas. We need to get the word out and I glad you are around to help.
My mother had the glioblastoma multiforme and had two surgeries (the second one) just to make it til her first grandson was born. She lived for 51/2 months after he was born. It was radiated and surgically treated. Now they treatments like cyberknife and implants that maybe could have saved her. S. White
My brother had glioblastoma multiforme and only lived 5 months. He had severe headaches for over 2 years prior but would not go to the doctor’s. Only went to the hospital when he had a seizure and they discovered the first tumor. It was removed surgically and another grew back within 6 weeks. That was removed and a 3rd one grew back within another 6 weeks. His pride and denial kept him from seeking other alternatives. Very sad that he lived less than 4 months after his first surgery. His chemo/radiation nearly burned him alive and helped to kill him, I believe. Glad my mom is blind and could not see the damage to his body. Died 3 days before his 62nd birthday – never got his social security. What a life for a former Vietnam vet – semper fi.