‘Hero’ senator McCain faces new battle with brain cancer
FORMER US presidential candidate John McCain has been diagnosed with brain cancer.
Doctors discovered the aggressive tumour after operating to remove a blood clot from above his eye.
The Republican senator, a war veteran who was held as a prisoner in Vietnam for five and a half years, had earlier complained about suffering double vision and feeling tired.
The 80-year-old was said to be recovering at his home in Arizona and considering further treatment options.
South Carolina Republican senator Lindsey Graham said he spoke to Mr McCain by phone last night and his close friend told him: “Yeah, I’m going to have to stay here a little bit longer, take some treatments. I’ll be back.”
Mr McCain, a six-term senator, was the Republican candidate who lost to Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election.
Messages of support were sent by colleagues from both sides of the political divide in Washington.
President Trump issued a statement saying that Mr McCain “has always been a fighter” and that he and his wife, Melania, “send our thoughts and prayers to Senator John McCain, Cindy, and their entire family”.
Mr Obama tweeted: “John McCain is an American hero & one of the bravest fighters I’ve ever known. Cancer doesn’t know what it’s up against. Give it hell, John.”
On Friday, the politician’s doctors performed a “minimally invasive craniotomy” — an incision through the skull — to remove a 2in blood clot above his left eye. This was not far from the spot on his left temple where he had a cancerous lesion removed in 2000.
A statement from Mr McCain’s office said: “Subsequent tissue pathology revealed that a primary brain tumour known as a glioblastoma was associated with the blood clot. Treatment options may include a combination of chemotherapy and radiation.”
Mr McCain’s daughter, Meghan, paid tribute to her father, describing him as a “warrior at dusk” and “the toughest person I know”.
Mr McCain is a long-term survivor of melanoma, a skin cancer. But doctors
‘John McCain is an American hero ... cancer doesn’t know what it’s up against. Give it hell, John’ Barack Obama
classified this new cancer as a “primary tumour”, meaning it is not related to his former malignancies.
The son and grandson of US admirals, as a US Navy pilot Mr McCain was shot down over Vietnam in 1967. He was held for more than five years, including two in solitary confinement. Offered early release because of his father’s rank, he refused to be freed ahead of men who had been held longer.
After repeated torture, Mr McCain was never again able to raise his arms above his head. He worked to pass legislation banning torture in 2015.
During the 2016 presidential election campaign, Donald Trump belittled the senator as “not a war hero”, saying: “I like people who weren’t captured.”