John McCain's Cancer
It's impolite to talk about cancer.
That's about the best reason I can think of to explain why John McCain's stage IIA (or is it IIIB?) melanoma isn't the subject of every political chatterbox show on cable news. It certainly isn't because McCain has ever come clean and settled the many unanswered questions on the subject. Or because the medical community has weighed in and found the chances of recurrence to be negligible.
Far from it. The fact is that John McCain's health is the most underreported, underdebated, and underappreciated risk factor in a potential McCain presidency. Sure, his age comes up all the time on TV and at the water cooler, usually in the context of a joke. If age alone were McCain's biggest health risk, I'd be the first in line to give him a pass and move on to more pressing issues. But his age is only an aggravating factor in a disturbing medical history whose records run 1,173 pages long. And because McCain has simply refused to divulge that history, we're not talking about it.
Of course, the McCain campaign would respond that they have indeed released the candidate's medical records, in full, back in May. To that, Frank Rich's New York Times column this Saturday provides a better response than I could ever hope to muster:
"The twin-pronged strategy of truculence and propaganda that sold Bush and his war could yet work for McCain....John McCain's full medical records, our sole index to the odds of an imminent Palin presidency, also remain locked away. The McCain campaign instead invited 20 chosen reporters to speed-read through 1,173 pages of medical history for a mere three hours on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend. No photocopying was permitted.....This is the same tactic of selective document release that the Bush White House used to bamboozle Congress and the press about Saddam's nonexistent W.M.D."
Simply put, there has been no release of John McCain's medical records, only a media stunt. Unfortunately, a number of news organizations (notably excepting The Times) took the bait hook, line and sinker, pretending that 20-odd crack reporters were able to sift through close to 400 pages per hour per person and issue a clean bill of health. As a consequence, we're no longer talking about an issue that trumps every one of the important questions about policy, judgment and experience that define the public discussion about John McCain.
The truth is more complicated than the facile conclusions reached by that handful of sanguine journalists locked in a room in Scottsdale, and far more portentous. The most straightforward reason why a full release of McCain's medical records is imperative to determining what the real risk is of his history of recurrent cancer is that there are in fact two conflicting reports from 2000 of the status of McCain's melanoma: one from the Mayo Clinic Scottsdale, and one from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (the "gold standard" of pathology, according to a melanoma specialist at UCLA). The Mayo Clinic doctors concluded eight years ago that the lesion on McCain's temple was a stage IIA melanoma. The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology determined that the same lesion was possibly two distinct melanomas, which would indicate an incidence of metastases, which implies a significantly more advanced stage of cancer.
To put that in terms of McCain's projected mortality during a McCain presidency, the respective 5- and 10-year survival rates for a stage IIA melanoma for a 72 year-old man are 79% and 64%. If the melanoma is in stage IIIB, which is what the possible satellite metastases suggest, the 5- and 10-year rates are 53% and 38%, respectively (McCain is now eight years into that projection). How likely is it that the melanoma is at stage IIIB rather than IIA? It's impossible to say without reviewing the medical records.
Over 2,300 doctors have signed an open letter entitled "John McCain's Health Records Must Be Released." That includes dozens of oncologists and melanoma specialists. If these medical professionals are sufficiently concerned about this issue to put their professional reputations behind this clear public statement, shouldn't the rest of us be at least a little bit worried?
Follow Leighton Woodhouse on Twitter: www.twitter.com/lwoodhouse
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I'm the grandparent in the family and have been an Obama-girl since the 2004 convention. There are plenty of elderly voters who support Obama, and there would be more if the Obama campaign would hit on John McCain's social security and health care attitudes.
Unfortunately the elderly tend to go to church. Their church "family" may be may be at one of the 33 churches that challenged the separation of church and state this weekend by attacking Obama. And don't forget, the elderly are probably more racist than their kids and grandkids.
Many years ago I heard a black preacher on TV addressing a mixed congregation. He spoke the truth when he said that "most of you are going to need to die off" before racism will die in this country.
Doesn't it make you shudder to think that we could end up with pugnacious McCain (the white haired old dude) or the equally pugnacious and clueless Palin leading our battered democracy?
If McCain's melanoma was removed 8 years ago, wouldn't you use survival statistics for a 64 year old man, and don't his odds improve with each year clean? I do think we ought to know. If Palin is going to be president I'm going to buy a lot of gold and think about building a bomb shelter.
You have made the case well. But honestly, it is not the cancer I worry about. JMcCain has demonstrated memory loss, irritablity, frustration, confusion and other symptoms of dementia. It is his cognitive function, his mental and emotional fitness I question most.
I hope you -and other members of the press- will continue to investigate this. The last "gaffe" with Spain serves to highlight the problem, since as a way to control the memory loss situations, he resorts to canned responses, repeating them even when it becomes clear that he's on the wrong track. Insulting our allies is one thing. What happens if he next insults our enemies?
Excellent point - which is partly why the world is watching this campaign so closely!
We should have access to his medical records. I also am a bit curious about one stat that may be readily available and easily latched on to by press, public:
Sen. McCain recently attended his 50-year Naval Academy reunion. How many or what percentage have passed away (including identification of the size subset of those who were killed in action)?
Mr. Woodhouse,
You have made an articulate argument for more investigation. Please stay on this for the rest of us.
Unfortunately, I'm concerned that there are too many who simply don't care if our president is a sickly old man, or a naive neocon, as long as it isn't a black man. How sad.
The younger generation knows better and will be telling their children and grandchildren about how this election went. We have the power to do the right thing, but will we?
I must second this comment, please keep on it. I too am worried that the choice of many voters will be color influenced. I am a retired expat, was non-voting Republican until 2004, have been among those the stay on the side of the road watching rather than engaging. No longer, I sent in my voter registration to make sure my vote is counted come November. To all other expats : its easy, log into https://ob
Don't just think about telling your children and grandchilden in the future, for God's sake. Talk to your parents and grandparents NOW. Lay out the facts. Lay out the positions. Ask them to imagine that these are two white men. If they like Palin (especially the women), ask them to imagine a man with her record and qualifications being chosen. McCain would have been laughed out of the campaign. HER choice is a slap in the face to women. Ask your grandparents if THEY have the stamina for the job, and add 10 years to McCain's age because of his war experience. I have a friend who's 15 years older than he is and has a heart condition, and he is more with it than McCain.
I've been very concerned about his health ( mental health as well ). Why the media is not only pushing for the records to be released but flat out ignoring it is disgraceful. Everyone needs to sign that petition even if you don't really think it will help do it anyway because you never know. If they do release it and it's not good it could be a major factor in the election. BTW the huffington post should have a direct link to that petition at the top of the home page.
People voting for McSame are not interested in "conservatism" ... how could they be, this reThug administration has the worst record of huge government ever!! They are not interested in whether or not McSame is physically or mentally fit to become POTUS!! The only logical explanation for this deaf, dumb & voluntary ignorance is the cancer of RACISM and white priviledge:
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I have forwarded to friends the letter demanding access to his files
I suggest we all sign it and forward it to everyone we know.
It is truly amazing how the Republicans are truly contemptuous of the American people. McCain gives us no proof of his physical ability to serve as president and then, without proving his health worthiness, he tosses an airhead like Palin out to the public as the person who will step in in the event of McCain's demise. What are these people thinking? Obviously not of the United States!
Let's forget about the melanoma for a second. What's the deal with his left cheek? Is it me or does he appear to have some kind of lump or tumor in there? Nobody ever talks about that and I've been wondering about it for months. He didn't always have the lump either.
It's a scar, I think from having the melanoma lesion removed. There is definitely a lump there, but with surgery comes some disfigurement.
His campaign goes to great lengths to make sure he isn't photographed from that side very often (his 60 Minutes interview was entirely from the "good" side). It wouldn't concern me nearly as much if they weren't trying to hide it.
If elected, even if McSame survives his term what about his mental health? Obviously he is losing it fast if it's not gone already.
That's what I've read, but what I've read has been vague. All I know is that around the time of the convention he appeared to have a lot of make-up on (and this is a guy who wears a lot of make-up), and lately the darn thing has been coming out more.
Look again. The 60 minutes interview showed his left side. The lump on his cheek was quite distracting.
It's the elephant in the room, no pun intended. I've been told that that recurring lump is a mass of swollen lymph nodes, which is not uncommon for someone with cancer and undergoing chemo. Don't know if that's the case, but a doctor friend of mine thought that it probably was.
Why the press doesn't report on any of this is reason enough to understand that they are in the tank for mccain. Watch...yo
It's his accumulated sins against humanity.
John McCain's biggest problem is not his health. His biggest problem is that he is not trustworthy. I find it hard to believe anything he says. He is deceptive, ambivalent, hypocritical, cynical, megalomaniac and fundamentally prone to lying in order to save his image.
He is even worse than GWB because he can talk himself into a World War 3 ...
MCCAIN MUST BE STOPPED. HE IS INTELLECTUALLY UNFIT TO BE POTUS ...
Melanoma is a very deadly kind of cancer. That however is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to medical issues that are of concern with the Senior Senator from Arizona. I wonder how many head injuries McCain suffered during his years as a pilot with multiple crashes and as a prisoner of war? I wonder if he hasn't suffered repeat closed brain trauma which is particularly damaging. His current mountain of campaign gaffes and exaggerations could be the result of either an emerging impairment from cumulative head injuries, senility, or a general slowdown of his mental faculties and physical endurance due to metastatic cancer.
Chris Bork
I have been saying for weeks that McCain's mental health needs to be investigated. This is not the man that ran for office in 2000. That man had honor, and I could have seen myself voting for him. What could have caused such a radical change in this man's behavior ? These are fair questions to ask of any presidential candidate.
It is time for full disclosure:
Medical records;
Military records;
Tax returns - that means you too, Sister Sarah.
They are hiding behind the economic crisis and are not addressing these issues. Let's not let them hide any longer - time is short.
Keep circulating this story every single day from now until November. Send it to all the media outlets.
I think the big document dump described above only covered the previous 8 years.
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