There is little doubt that before his death from a malignant glioma on August 25, Senator Edward M. Kennedy suffered from oral mucositis, a highly common side effect of those being treated with radiation and chemotherapy for brain cancer.  

First diagnosed in May 2008 after a brain biopsy revealed a tumor in the his left parietal lobe, the senator underwent surgery at Duke Medical Center in North Carolina in June 2008 followed by proton beam radiation therapy and chemotherapy at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Many of the specifics of the senator’s condition and treatments have never been revealed and may never be.

But medical experts have surmised that the senator, the last surviving brother of the legendary Kennedy dynasty that included President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, likely underwent at least six weeks of radiation.

Writing in the July 27, 2009 edition of Newsweek magazine, Kennedy himself revealed, “I’ve undergone many rounds of chemotherapy and continue to receive treatment.”  As CNN.com notes in a story posted after the senator’s death:  “During the [weeks] of radiation, a patient typically would take an oral chemotherapy drug called Temodar at a low dose every day…Then, a month-long break is followed by at least six months of Temodar at a higher dose.”

With very few exceptions, all head and neck cancer patients who are treated with radiation and chemotherapy develop oral mucositis, a side effect that ranges from mild – redness and tolerable sores of the mouth and throat, to severe – open sores so painful and infected that they require tube feeding, hospitalization and in some cases result directly in death.

While Kennedy’s illness calls attention to brain cancer and advances in its treatment, the degree to which the senator was impacted by oral mucositis remains a mystery.  

In the CNN.com article, Dr. Donald O’Rourke, associate professor of neurosurgery at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, says there have been a “recent explosion” of technology, such as surgical and imaging techniques, that have helped the survival rate of brain cancer victims.

However, there does not seem to have been a single article in the mainstream news media that likewise notes that cancer patients, such as Senator Kennedy, now also have more, highly effective methods of treating and even preventing some of the harshest side effects of cancer treatments, such as oral mucositis.

Perhaps, with time, the Kennedy family will disclose just how the senator coped with his own bout of oral mucositis, assuming that he did suffer from it prior to his death.  The annual incidents of oral mucositis in all cancer patients vastly outnumbers the number of brain cancer victims.