Senator Kennedy leaves hospital after brain cancer diagnosis

May 21, 2008, 16:27 GMT

A file picture dated 18 April 2008 shows US Senator Edward M Kennedy at the John F Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Kennedy, who is being cared for at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, reportedly suffers from a malignant brain tumour, as announced by his doctors 20 May 2008. EPA/CJ GUNTHER

Washington - Senator Edward 'Ted' Kennedy left Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston Wednesday surrounded by his family, smiling and waving to applauding well-wishers after being diagnosed with a serious form of brain cancer.

Kennedy, 76, the liberal giant of US politics for nearly half a century, walked to the car, then turned back to wave to photographers, his two dogs by his side, according to broadcast images.

His wife Vicky, son Patrick who is an elected member of the US House of Representatives, and niece Caroline Kennedy, daughter of Kennedy's slain brother president John F Kennedy, were among those also at his side.

Doctors announced Tuesday that Kennedy, 76, the nation's second longest-serving senator, had malignant glioma tumor in the left parietal lobe, an area of the brain that controls speech and motor control.

Outside medical experts expressed sobering prospects for long-term survival. The prognosis ranges according to the type of glioma, the New York Times reported: from 50 per cent after a year to 40 per cent after 10 years.

The diagnosis was confirmed through a biopsy taken after a seizure on Saturday.

The revelation sent a stunned silence across Capitol Hill on Tuesday, where the Democrat Kennedy was hailed as the most effective legislator of the past century on either side of the political divide.

In his 46 years in the Senate, he is credited with pushing through major expansions of human rights in the US, including voting rights, civil rights and the rights of the disabled, and is one of the country's major advocates for the poor and underprivileged.

In addition to the assassinations of JFK and another brother, Robert Kennedy, who was a 1968 Democratic presidential hopeful at the time, Senator Kennedy's immediate family has suffered several bouts with cancer.

His son Edward Kennedy Jr's leg was amputated in 1973 for bone cancer, his daughter Kara had lung cancer in 2003 and first wife Joan had breast cancer in 2005.