The world according to Riff

WASHINGTON - A malignant glioma — the diagnosis doctors gave Sen. Edward M. Kennedy — is the worst kind of brain cancer. Malignant gliomas strike almost 9,000 Americans a year. Survival statistics are grim — few live three years and for the worst subtype, half die within a year. (have another highball maybe that will fix it)

Who lasts longer — and some do — depends on exactly what form of glioma someone has, whether surgeons can cut most of it out, age and some other medical details.

Kennedy's doctors didn't mention surgery, suggesting that may not be a possibility for him.

"As a general rule, at 76, without the ability to do a surgical resection, as kind of a ballpark figure you're probably looking at a survival of less than a year," said Dr. Keith Black, chairman of neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

On the plus side, scientists are studying new approaches — adding a drug called Avastin to standard treatment, or even brewing up customized vaccines to help the body fight back. While they're still experimental, many glioma experts advise newly diagnosed patients to seek out specialized cancer centers and ask if they're a good candidate for a research study up front.

(gliomas are very bad news, don't let the press try to "keep up hope" and sugar coat this shi#, this guy is screwed. Despite my blatant disrespect at the start of this blog, I don't wish this on anybody, the family has to watch the deterioration, as he loses his capacity for coherent thought, and confusion sets in.....awful stuff....lets hope he goes quickly, to spare him the indignity of being a ranting confused man, that has to be restrained in bed so as to not fall and break a hip or split his scalp and have to go get stitches, to lose your mind is very hard on the family, as they have to deal with a "pillar" of the family that has started to crumble...hence the old phrase..."How the mighty have fallen"....it happens to us all...)riff