Cancer doesn’t know what it’s up against, Obama tells Mccain
JOHN MCCAIN, the US senator, promised to be “back soon” and thanked America for an outpouring of good wishes after he was diagnosed with an aggressive type of brain cancer.
Mr Mccain, 80, wrote on Twitter: “I greatly appreciate the outpouring of support – unfortunately for my sparring partners in Congress, I’ll be back soon, so stand-by!” The former Republican presidential nominee’s office confirmed late on Wednesday that he had been diagnosed.
Doctors in Arizona, his home state, removed a blood clot above his left eye last week and pathology tests revealed a brain tumour associated with the clot.
Republicans and Democrats in the US Senate offered prayers for the veteran politician and Vietnam War hero.
Barack Obama, who dashed Mccain’s dreams of the presidency in 2008, said: “John Mccain is an American hero and one of the bravest fighters I’ve ever known. Cancer doesn’t know what it’s up against. Give it hell, John.”
Donald Trump, the US president said: “Senator John Mccain has always been a fighter. Melania and I send our thoughts and prayers to Senator Mccain, Cindy, and their entire family. Get well soon.”
The former Vietnam prisoner of war has spent more than three decades in Congress. He was diagnosed with glioblastoma, according to doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix.
Mr Mccain and his family are considering further treatment, including chemotherapy and radiation.
According to the American Brain Tumor Association, more than 12,000 people a year are diagnosed with glioblastoma, the same type of tumour that struck down Ted Kennedy, Mccain’s close Democratic colleague in legislative battles, who died in 2009.
The American Cancer Society puts the five-year survival rate for patients over 55 at about four per cent.
In a statement on Twitter, Meghan Mccain, his daughter, said: “My love for my father is boundless and like any daughter I cannot and do not wish to be in a world without him. I have faith that those days remain far away.”