Monday morning, Senator Edward Kennedy was set to undergo brain surgery in order to begin his treatment for his malignant brain tumor.

According to Reuters, Kennedy declared that he would have surgery on Monday at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. After the surgery he will undergo chemotherapy and radiation at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

The surgery was set to start around 9 a.m. EDT and it was said to last about 6 hours. He would have to remain hospitalized for about a week.

The doctors diagnosed Kennedy with a brain tumor in May. They said that the tumor was a glioma located in the left parietal lobe of the brain.

Gliomas (primary brain tumors) start in the brain or spinal cord tissue. They can spread within the nervous system but do not spread outside the nervous system. Gliomas can be either benign (slow growing) or malignant (fast growing).
Annually, about 17,000 Americans are diagnosed with a primary brain tumor. Treatment options and survival odds depend on the tumor type, size and location, as well as the patient's age and overall health.

The Senator suffered a seizure in mid-May and, after being transported by an ambulance to a local hospital located near his family's Cape Cod vacation house, he was flown to Massachusetts General Hospital where doctors began running test to determine the cause of the seizure.

Edward “Ted” Kennedy has been in the Senate for 45 years and unsuccessfully sought the centre-left Democratic nomination in 1980. He came to the Senate in November 1962. Senator Ted Kennedy is currently chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.