Kennedy’s collapse due to brain tumour

A CANCEROUS brain tumour caused the seizure Senator Edward M Kennedy suffered over the weekend, doctors said on Tuesday in a grim diagnosis for one of the most enduring figures of American politics.

Doctors for the Massachusetts Democrat say tests conducted after Kennedy suffered a seizure this weekend show a tumour in his left parietal lobe.

Preliminary results from a biopsy of the brain identified the cause of the seizure as a malignant glioma — which has a survival prognosis from less than a year to about five years.