On John McCain's Melanoma

[jpertello]

Speaking from personal experience

I watched my very wonderful sister die of this horrible disease 2 years ago. I know what stages of Melanoma my sister was in when various things were happening. At the stage that the tumors left the first site of occurrence and traveled to distant spots or the opposite side of the body this was evidence that the cancer had entered the lymphatic system and was now freely traveling throughout the body via the lymphatic system. (see: http://www.melanomacenter.org/staging/stage3.html ) Since Sen. McCain has had the lymph nodes in the left side of his face removed (the "chipmunk cheeks" are due to lymph edema) a tumor then showed up on the RIGHT side of his face pointing to his being in a more advanced stage of the disease than he admits. John McCain had the lymph nodes removed as a "precautionary measure"(The operation was performed mainly to determine whether the melanoma.... had spread from his left temple to a key lymph node in his neck; a preliminary pathology test at the time showed that it had not.") http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/us/politics/09mccain.html?pagewanted=1


The operation also involved the removal of the parotid salivary gland and 33 lymph nodes in the senator's neck. No evidence of cancer was found in the lymph nodes, according to the Mayo physicians. This may have been quite a radical approach. I will leave it to any oncology doctors on this board to comment on that.

However, not all Melanomas are the same. My sister had first occurrence on her toe. Since this is a small area close to the bone it had probably already entered her bone by the time she even had it checked and very quickly amputated. Still, at the point that she was in Stage III she had less than 2 years left to live. The doctors at Duke Medical Center used the standard Breslow measurement to determine staging (http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/content/CRI_2_4_3X_How_is_melanoma_staged_50.asp )
But as for Senator McCain, his year 2000 tumor was the most significant of his four melanomas. It was 2 centimeters in size and 2.2 millimeters thick. Its removal left a wound that was 6 centimeters by 6 centimeters.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90781894

Sen. McCain's Melanoma in my estimation (and I am no doctor) is probably in Stage III by now. This gives him a very grim prognosis for getting through even the first 2 years of a presidency, never mind 4. If you want to read more:

http://www.bcm.edu/oto/grand/3493.html

And if you really want to do something wonderful, then please donate something to the Melanoma Research Foundation so more great people like my sister don't need to suffer and die from this horrible disease.

http://www.melanoma.org /

[Disturbed]

1. Even his own campaign has forwarded that he may not live

past four more years. He would be a lame duck Pres. from the start.

Imagining Snarky Sarah as Pres. is a Nightmare.

[PlanetBev]

2. My condolences to you, JP

Almost three years ago, I got a melanoma on my upper left arm. My diagnosis was Stage 1A, .07 mm depth. Had local wide excision, then had second surgery in the hospital, because the abnormal cells were too close to the excision margins. Also had the sentinel node biopsy, just in case.

What's really creepy, mine was referred to "left-sided melanoma", attributed to driving in Southern California for 37 years. Your left arm is the most vulnerable. Since then, I wear 50 sunscreen every day and had my car windows tinted.

I can't imagine what kind of ego must drive McCain to seek the presidency after suffering FOUR melanomas. I had one early stage, and I'm still freaked out. You'd think he'd be happy to just spend time with his family and enjoying his life. What a jerk.

[Disturbed]

3. Since McLiar was refused as Admiral his obsession is

being Pres. He will say & do anything to achieve that goal.