Sen. Ted Kennedy Has Brain Tumor

A grim diagnosis for U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy. He has a malignant brain tumor, according to a statement today from Massachusetts General Hospital, where the 76-year-old senator was sent after having a seizure at his home in Cape Cod on Saturday.

The statement comes from Lee Schwamm, MD, vice chairman of the neurology department at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Larry Ronan, MD, a primary care doctor at the hospital.

"Over the course of the last several days, we've done a series of tests on Sen. Kennedy to determine the cause of his seizure. He has had no further seizures, remains in good overall condition, and is up and walking around the hospital. Some of the tests we had performed were inconclusive, particularly in light of the fact that the senator had severe narrowing of the left carotid artery [which supplies blood from the heart to the brain] and underwent surgery just six months ago.

"However, preliminary results from a biopsy of the brain identified the cause of the seizure as a malignant glioma in the left parietal lobe. The usual course of treatment includes combinations of various forms of radiation and chemotherapy. Decisions regarding the best course of treatment for Sen. Kennedy will be determined after further testing and analysis. Sen. Kennedy will remain at Massachusetts General Hospital for the next couple of days according to routine protocol. He remains in good spirits and full of energy."

Sen. Kennedy's office has not yet released a statement.

A glioma is the most common type of brain cancer, that begins in glial cells, which are cells that surround and support nerve cells. Determining the specific type of the cancer, and how far it is along, is crucial to the type of treatment Sen. Kennedy will get, and will have a lot to do with his chances for long-term survival.

Average survival rates can range anywhere from a year for an aggressive glioma to five years for less advanced cancer.

Surgery often is not a viable option, but is sometimes done to help relieve pressure on the brain.

WebMD will continue to update this story as it develops. For more, read the news story here.

Michael W. Smith, MD
Chief Medical Editor, WebMD

Sean Swint
Executive Editor, WebMD

Wii and Me

Let me start by saying that I work out with a real-life personal trainer three times a week and have been doing so for about one year. Several thousand dollars later, it's fair to say I am in pretty good shape (at least for me). With that as background, I had no reservations about trying out Wii Fit, Nintendo's new virtual exercise console, at a launch event Monday in New York City.

Perhaps, I should have been less confident.

I tried three games, starting with a balance game in which you stand on the board without shoes and use your body to direct virtual balls into virtual holes. Fairly simple, I thought. Not so much. My score: zero.

The Wii trainer who was assigned to me tried to make me feel better by saying it takes a while to get used to the feel of the board and just how sensitive it is to body movements.

Next we did some virtual yoga poses. I am happy to say, I did well. I followed the animation, and exhaled and inhaled on cue. I held the pose well as evidenced by a small red ball on the screen that did not move as long as I remained in my pose.

Feeling confident, I tried the hula hoop game, which seemed to be a favorite at the launch event. I spread my feet a bit wider on the balance board and circled my hips as my cartoon likeness did the same on the screen.

"Watch out, the characters in the background will throw hula hoops at your head and you must lean in to catch them," the human trainer at my side said. Even with the warning, all the hoops hit me in my (fortunately virtual) head.

When my time ran out, I had twirled the hula hoop 52 times in 50 seconds. I thought that was great until the trainer told me a middle schooler who went right before me did it more than 200 times in the same time frame and even caught the errant hula hoops.

All in all, I liked Wii Fit. It's fun, different, and challenging. I will likely purchase it if for no other reason than to beat that middle schooler's hula-hoop record.

Denise Mann
WebMD Guest Blogger

Double Trouble -- Arthritis & Diabetes

WebMD Guest Blogger
Charles Helmick, MD, is a medical epidemioligist and scientific lead for the arthritis program at the CDC. His team implements the surveillance, epidemiology, and prevention strategies laid out in the CDC's National Arthritis Action Plan whose goal is to meet the ambitious Healthy People 2010 objectives for arthritis set down by the agency. Here is some advice from Dr. Helmick on how to stay active, even if you're battling both arthritis and diabetes.

A Plan of Action

Lots of research focuses on a single medical condition, but many people have more than one ailment. So a logical question is -- how do these conditions affect one another?

For instance, a study that my CDC colleagues and I undertook shows that having arthritis in addition to diabetes greatly decreases physical activity levels. And, arthritis is very common among people with diabetes.

People with both diabetes and arthritis face special barriers to being physically active, such as worry about aggravating or causing further joint damage, and uncertainty about which activities are safe.

How can people with both conditions get the physical activity they need?
Most can engage in joint-friendly activities, such as walking, swimming, and biking. In many communities, arthritis-specific group exercise programs are available that may help people with both conditions better manage their disease. For more information on group programs, visit The Arthritis Foundation, the CDC's arthritis web site, or WebMD's Arthritis Health Center.


Charles G. (Chad) Helmick, MD
Captain, U.S. Public Health Service
Medical Epidemiologist, Arthritis Program
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention