The cancerous tumour is said to be associated with the removed blood clot. A doctors’s statement revealed that the anti-Russian Republican has been diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive cancer.
According to the statement, the 80-year-old senator and his family are reviewing further treatment, including a combination of chemotherapy and radiation.
The tumour was revealed after surgery to remove blood clot, after “scanning done since the procedure (a minimally invasive craniotomy with an eyebrow incision) shows that the tissue of concern was completely resected by imaging criteria.”
His medical team says that “the Senator’s doctors say he is recovering from his surgery ‘amazingly well’ and his underlying health is excellent.”
The office of Senator John McCain also released the a statement in which he noted that he might not be returning to work pending the outcome of his medical examination.
“[Senator McCain] is grateful to the doctors and staff at Mayo Clinic for their outstanding care, and is confident that any future treatment will be effective. Further consultations with Senator McCain’s Mayo Clinic care team will indicate when he will return to the United States Senate.”
McCain has previously been diagnosed with cancer. He revealed in 2008 during his presidential campaign that he had four malignant melanomas removed in surgeries in 1993, 2000 and 2002.
McCain, 80, has served in the senate for 31 years. As he directed questions to fired FBI director James Comey a month ago, many were perplexed by his incoherent ramblings near the end of Comey’s testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee.
At one point, McCain mistakenly called Comey “President Comey”. Viewers on Twitter went wild, with some speculating about the 80-year-old’s health. “The surprise ending is that John McCain was revealed to be… not quite… all there,” one tweeted.
The war-loving Senator is notoriously anti-Russian. In that context the support that McCain has given to the Free Syrian Army is highly problematic. A report from Breitbart on July 8, 2014 noted that several factions within the “moderate rebel” insurgency may not have been so moderate after all. It observed: “Reports coming out of eastern Syria Monday revealed that several factions within the Syrian opposition force known as the Free Syrian Army (FSA) have pledged services to the Islamic State, the group formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). Sources and eyewitnesses said that the FSA has handed over its weapons to the Islamic State in large numbers.”
As Senator Rand Paul told CBS’s This Morning: “It’s a mistake to arm them. Most of the arms we’ve given to the so-called moderate rebels have wound up in the hands of ISIS, because ISIS simply takes it from them, or it’s given to them, or we mistakenly actually give it to some of the radicals.”
McCain was an avid supporter of the invasion of Iraq. In remarks in the Senate on March 19, 2003, he stated, in part: “I believe that, obviously, we will remove a threat to America’s national security because we will find there are still massive amounts of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.” The WMD was uncovered as a hoax to justify war.
Last year McCain urged Trump to use his authority under an existing defense policy law to provide lethal assistance to Ukraine.