Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/kennedy-may-face-lengthy-treatment-for-brain-tumor Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Sen. Edward Kennedy was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor, his doctors said Tuesday. Malignant gliomas, like Kennedy's, are the most common type of adult brain cancers, inflicting some 9,000 Americans a year. A medical expert discusses treatment for brain tumors. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JUDY WOODRUFF: Now, Senator Kennedy's diagnosis and what is known about the treatment of brain tumors. Jeffrey Brown has more. JEFFREY BROWN: Senator Kennedy has been hospitalized in Boston since he had a seizure Saturday. After a series of tests, his doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital issued a statement today, reading, in part, "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."Malignant gliomas are diagnosed in about 9,000 Americans each year, making it the most common type of brain cancer among adults.We learn more now from Dr. Susan Chang at the University of California-San Francisco Medical Center. She's the director of the division of neural oncology.Well, Dr. Chang, why don't we start with a malignant glioma? What exactly does that mean?DR. SUSAN CHANG, University of California, San Francisco Medical Center: Well, this tumor type is one that is a primary brain tumor, as opposed to other tumors where they can arise from other organs and spread to the brain.The malignant glioma represents a tumor that is very infiltrative into the brain tissue itself and can be very difficult in terms of identifying the borders of the tumor from the normal tissue. JEFFREY BROWN: And how does it cause seizures? And how dangerous is it? DR. SUSAN CHANG: Well, it's very dangerous in the sense that, depending on anywhere in the brain, the function of the brain is very specific to where the tumor may arise.So, for example, if it's in the parietal lobe, as it is in Senator Kennedy, we'd expect that some of the symptoms may be related to difficulty with coordination or sensation. The seizure effect is because of irritation of the brain within a normal tissue, causing electrical abnormalities which result in a seizure. JEFFREY BROWN: But go back, tell us a little bit more about the location, the left parietal lobe. What exactly happens in the brain there? And what would be the significance of that particular location? DR. SUSAN CHANG: So in the left parietal lobe, normally we think about — which is the dominant part of the brain in patients who are right-handed and even in most patients who are left-handed, the dominant side of the brain is on the left side, which means this is where the function for speech and language lay.In the case for Senator Kennedy, without looking at his MRI scans to really look at the location, specifically in the parietal lobe, the concerns would be whether, as a result of the tumor, he can have symptoms related to abnormal sensation or abnormal coordination, not knowing where his arm or leg may be in space and being able to coordinate.