Ted Kennedy has malignant brain tumor

U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy has a malignant brain tumor, doctors treating him at Massachusetts General Hospital said Tuesday. Kennedy, 76, was hospitalized Saturday morning after suffering a seizure at his family's compound at Hyannisport, Massachusetts.

"Preliminary results from a biopsy of the brain identified the cause of the seizure as a malignant glioma in the left parietal lobe," according to a statement from Massachusetts General Hospital.

Malignant glioma is the most common primary brain tumor, accounting for more than half of the 18,000 primary malignant brain tumors diagnosed each year in the United States, according to the National Cancer Institute.

A tumor in that area of the brain could affect Kennedy's ability to speak and understand speech, as well as the strength on the right side of his body, CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta said.

Many times I have found myself disagreeing with Sen. Kennedy's positions on various issues. I consider him a extreme liberal and my opposite politically.

Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican who is the GOP's presumptive presidential nominee, also offered his thoughts and prayers to Kennedy's family.

"I have described Ted Kennedy as the last lion in the Senate. And I have held that view because he remains the single most effective member of the Senate," McCain said from his campaign bus, the Straight Talk Express, in Florida.

Regardless of politics, he has been a man who has been able to work with both sides of the Senate. I too extend my prayers for his speedy recovery. And hope that all my readers will remember him in their prayers too.