John McCain has brain cancer. What happens next?

He’ll probably try to work as long as possible. It may come to the government unseating him, if his health deteriorates to that point.

If you’re asking if this will make the GOP consider health issues more seriously, I say no. Nothing is more important than their greed. Empathy is not a trait they have.
Keep in mind, they haven’t changed their minds on gun control. Even after the softball shooting…

The GOP is at war with the middle class, and poor. This will not slow their machine. In fact, McCain was sometimes a sobering voice in his party. He is still conservative, but he’s pissed about the Russia/election stuff for example…

Oh, no, I hadn’t been thinking about it from that angle. I mostly was referring to the absence of his vote on these issues and the arrival of whoever the hell may replace him.

I hope for his sake that he doesn’t push himself past his boundaries with trying to work while ill. That is not a fun game.

Lucky he has free healthcare.

I think he’ll work as long as he can.

I also think Arizona will be as patient as the law permits. I think his daughter should run.

Is his mom still alive? I vaguely remember she was still alive when he was running for president.

His mom is 105. Incredible.

@JLeslie – Meghan McCain would be an interesting pick. I hadn’t thought of her, but she’s smart and already heavy into politics. I think she would be a good pick.

I am guessing that unless he actually retires, he is allowed absentee votes and to miss a lot of meetings and assemblies. All Congressmen and Senators have a record kept of each one of them and what meetings they’ve missed and what votes they were not present for.

Ted Kennedy lived with a brain tumor for what seemed like pretty long. He slowed down some, but stayed active in the senate until his death.
John is a tough old soldier, and might well do similarly.
I hope he has found his life rewarding, in spite of his hardships.
I just bought the movie they made about him a couple of days ago. It should be here soon.

Death, probably.

They found the cancer when operating to remove a blood clot. Tests show the cancer was fully contained in the clot, and therefore was already gone.
He is said to be recovering nicely.

Foiled again.

With all due respect to the Senator – he is of course an absolute badass with an amazing record of overcoming adversity – cancer doesn’t care how “tough” you are. Glioblastoma has a 4% 5 year survival rate for the 55–64 age group (my source doesn’t give data on people older than that -
McCain is 81 https://www.cancer.org/cancer/brain-spinal-cord-tumors-adults/detection-diagnosis-staging/survival-rates.html) and a high rate of recurrence. Most people pass away from it within 6 months to a year.

I hope he beats the odds, but I don’t think it’s wise to downplay the seriousness of his diagnosis.

He’s 81, the usual age when a lot of people die, and we all have to die of something. What happens next is anyones guess.

He is clear.
They removed it.
The blood clot they removed was it.
He is recovering.
The cancer is gone.
And hell yes, tough makes a difference. It is not a cure all, but it does go in one’s favor.

@Patty_Melt Way more serious than you make it out to be. Here’s a link.

@Patty_Melt ”...medical experts said it almost always grows back….”

@patty_melt. It’s very serious and he will most likely not survive a year. Not only do I know that from news accounts but the doctors I work with say the same thing. He is not clear now.

My news source is from today and he tweeted today he is headed right back to work. Yes, it often returns, but not always. They caught it early. They have a treatment plan to keep it from returning. Right now, HE IS CLEAR.

Interesting, how a gang formed to chastise me on the basis of yesterday’s news, and the prognosis of OTHER people.
He is at home, no cancer at this time, tweeting, and sending challenges to opponents.
Chill folks, I didn’t make anything up.
Sounds to me like you want to wish the man dead.

“Other people” meaning neurologists and shit.

Uh no, other cancer patients.
<3

I am very much of a layman when it comes to cancer but my mom had it for six years until she passed away in the autumn of 2016. She started out having breast cancer which she was treated for, and then three years later it came back in the form of bone cancer and then it spread to her liver.

I read that John McCain’s cancer is a particularly aggressive form. I can tell you what I learned about cancer when my mom had it. It travels all over your body through your multiple systems (circulatory system, etc.) looking for some place to call home. So the cancer cells are floating all over looking for a place to latch on to. While John McCain’s tumor was removed, presumably it was in his body for months or years and those malignant cells were traveling all over looking for other homes in his body.

Nobody will know if his cancer hasn’t spread for a while. It might pop up in the form of spots on another part of his body, spots which will turn into tumors.

If he was totally out of the woods, he wouldn’t need chemo and radiation. The purpose of the chemo and radiation is to kill whatever cancer cells he has in his body at present (the ones that were floating around and have set up shop elsewhere).

I can also tell you that chemo is a very evil medication (it’s actually a cocktail of medications) and although it is helpful in killing cancer, the chemo in and of itself can make people very sick, very weak and very vulnerable to other infections. It also has a whole bunch of terrible side effects, like neuropathy for example.

I don’t wish cancer on my worst enemy. I think John McCain is on the slow ride down and out.

What happened with my mom is the bone cancer breaks down the bones so they spill calcium into the blood stream. The calcium overwhelms the kidneys so the kidneys can’t do their job. High calcium in the blood stream causes a bunch of terrible side effects, in addition to the kidney problems. It’s really awful.

What will very possibly happen with John McCain is that cancer is going to end up coming out in the form of something else (like my mom’s) and not all cancers are curable. Bone cancer is treatable but it’s not curable. I was optimistic when I found that out but I had no idea what it would end up doing to my mom’s bones, her kidneys, etc.

I can also tell you that when someone has cancer in the family, it’s like the whole family is sick. Getting treatment, taking medication, going for tests, waiting for test results, seeing how the numbers are – did the numbers go up? Did the numbers go down? Trying new treatment, getting new tests, waiting for those results. Then the side effects are terrible and require their own medical treatment.

It’s truly a nightmare of a disease.

I’m so sorry @jca.

@Patty_Melt I wasn’t killing him off today. I fully expected him to go back to work. I don’t know if the cancer will be back in 6 months, 2 years, or never, but I wouldn’t call him “clear.” The likelihood that it comes back is high, so for him, he has that looming. It looks to be an aggressive form of cancer, but certainly he could be lucky and not have a problem for a few years or ever, it’s just not likely.

Not that I think the media and everyone need to dwell on McCain the next 5 days. For now, in my mind, he is “healthy” and capable, but it’s still hanging out there, waiting for the next bad doctor’s appointment.

A friend of my husband’s was diagnosed with kidney cancer. Took them a year but they gave him the all clear. But right on the heels of that they found other places on his body, and they’re dealing with them one at a time. It’s been 3 years and he’s still a frequent visitor at the hospital for tests and treatments. Sometimes they have to keep him until whatever stabilizes.
It’s horrible.

This thread is about John.
Cancer has been brutal to many people, I know some personally myself, but not all experience the same horrors.
Anyone who reads the link I provided can see he was declared clear by the doctors, not by me. Whoever wants to argue the point should contact them.

@Patty_Melt: If he were “clear” he wouldn’t be having chemo and radiation in his future.

Whatever. His doctors fucked up. It wouldn’t be the first time. I am not his diagnostician. I am just somebody who repeated what was reported. I invite everyone to see my links above.

@Patty_Melt: Everyone here is expressing concern for Senator McCain. Why are you being so defensive? Nobody’s ganging up on you.
I, too, wish he beats this. I lost a childhood friend some years ago from a glioblastoma situation who was also declared “clear” until he wasn’t.

He is a good man and my heart is with him and his family.

The tumors keep returning and the prognosis is poor:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/20/health/john-mccain-brain-cancer.html?_r=0

Man…... how damn scary. I hope he’s lucky. I like him.

But they haven’t returned yet @jca but it’s only been a few days.

What, @Dutchess_III?

You said, “The tumors keep returning…” Well, they just found it last Friday and he had surgery on Wednesday (I think. I went to your link and it suddenly blocked the article trying to get me to subscribe.)
So they haven’t returned yet, but there is a good chance they will.

Gotcha, @Dutchess_III. For those that couldn’t read the article, this is a clip:

“Because they keep returning, glioblastomas are almost never cured, and the prognosis is poor. With treatment, the median survival — which means half of patients live longer than this, and half die sooner — is 12 to 18 months.”

So damn scary for them.

This is the worst diagnosis it could be. I lost someone to this same thing. I know there is research going on where something live is injected into the brain and it attacks the cancer cells. I read it about a year ago. This may not have been in America. And I don’t remember the details. When I lost my in-law she was dead within months. Right after she died I read about a drug being used in England with some success. That was around 18 years ago. I am so sorry for Mr. McCain and his family.