U.S. Senator John McCain was found to have a brain tumor, according to a statement released by his office.
The tumor was discovered after the former Republican presidential nominee underwent a procedure last week to remove a blood clot, U.S. media reported.
McCain has represented Arizona at the U.S. Senate since 1986.
The senator’s doctors said in the statement that McCain’s “underlying health is excellent.”
Here’s the statement:
“At the request of Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and his family, Mayo Clinic released the following statement today:
“On Friday, July 14, Sen. John McCain underwent a procedure to remove a blood clot from above his left eye at Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix. Subsequent tissue pathology revealed that a primary brain tumor known as a glioblastoma was associated with the blood clot.
“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.
“The Senator and his family are reviewing further treatment options with his Mayo Clinic care team. Treatment options may include a combination of chemotherapy and radiation.
“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 following statement:
“Senator McCain appreciates the outpouring of support he has received over the last few days. He is in good spirits as he continues to recover at home with his family in Arizona.
“He 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.”
The senator’s daughter, Meghan McCain, issued a statement on Twitter about the diagnosis:
“The news of my father’s illness has affected every one of us in the McCain family. My grandmother, mother, brothers, sisters and I have all endured the shock of the news, and now we live with the anxiety about what comes next.
“It is an experience familiar to us, given my father’s previous battle with cancer – and it is familiar to the countless American families whose loved ones are also stricken with the tragedy of disease and the inevitability of age.
“If we could ask anything of anyone now, it would be the prayers of those of you who understand this all too well. We would be so grateful for them.
“It won’t surprise you to learn that in all this, the one of us who is most confident and calm is my father. He is the toughest person I know. The cruelest enemy could not break him.
“The aggression of political life could not bend him. So he is meeting this challenge as he has every other. Cancer may afflict him in many ways: but it will not make him surrender. Nothing ever has.
“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.
“Yet even in this moment, my fears for him are overwhelmed by one thing above all: gratitude for our years together, and the years still to come.
“He is a warrior at dusk, one of the greatest American of our age, and the worthy heir to his father’s and grandfather’s name. But to me, he is something more.
“He is my strength, my example, my refuge, my confidante, my teacher, my rock, my hero – my dad.”
