US Senator Edward Kennedy was released from a Boston hospital this morning after being diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour.
The 76-year-old Massachusetts politician waved to sympathisers and embraced accompanying family members as he left Massachusetts General Hospital, where has been since suffering a seizure at his family's Cape Cod vacation home on Saturday.
Mr Kennedy, the second-longest serving member of the current US Senate, was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour called a glioma, his doctors said yesterday. His prospects of recovery will depend on further analysis of the tumour and the extent to which it has advanced.
Senator Kennedy has been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour
Patients typically survive for between one and five years following such a diagnosis, depending on the type of tumour.
The doctors said he might undergo treatment including radiation and chemotherapy.
"Senator Kennedy has recovered remarkably quickly from his Monday procedure and therefore will be released from the hospital today ahead of schedule," his doctors, neurologist Dr Lee Schwamm and physician Dr Larry Ronan said in a joint statement. The doctors described Mr Kennedy as "feeling well and eager to get started."
It is unclear whether Mr Kennedy will have to resign because of his illness, but he is expected to take time off from the Senate while undergoing chemotherapy.
Elected in 1962 to the seat vacated when his brother, John F Kennedy, became president a year earlier, Mr Kennedy is the second-longest serving member of the senate. He was re-elected in 2006 and is not up for election again until 2012. If he fails to serve his full term, a special election will be held to fill the Massachusetts seat.