Those

who haven't treated Ted Kennedy but are going on what his doctors have diagnosed say his prognosis is poor.

That's based on averages, of course:

But other specialists said that the diagnostic details released by the hospital indicated that Kennedy has terminal brain cancer and most likely less than three years to live -- perhaps much less.

"Unfortunately, it's a really serious tumor," said Dr. Patrick Wen, clinical director for neuro-oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Mass. General's descripton of the tumor as a malignant glioma probably means the tumor is at stage 3 or 4 on a four-point scale of severity, with 4 the most serious, Wen said.

"The average survival for a Grade 4 tumor is 14 or 15 months," he said. "For a Grade 3 tumor, it's two to three years. Unfortunately, the older you are, the worse it is. The biology of the tumor is worse, it's more aggressive."

That absolutely stinks. I hope Kennedy can overcome the odds. He's been a fighter all of his life.

This picture from the Boston Globe by Bill Greene of Kennedy and his family at the hospital show him to be in good spirits:



Update: I decided to put up some MSNBC video reports of Kennedy's latest health problems:





It is clear people on both sides of the aisle really like him: