WASHINGTON (AFP) — The US Senate's liberal lion Edward Kennedy was walking around and experienced no complications Tuesday after undergoing brain cancer surgery, his office said.
"Senator Kennedy had a restful night's sleep and is recuperating well from yesterday's procedure" at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, the Massachusetts Democratic senator's office said in a statement.
"He is experiencing no complications, and has been walking the hallways, spending time with family and actively keeping up with the news of the day," it said.
The statement said that Kennedy, 76, one of the most senior Democrats in the US Senate the last surviving brother of assassinated President John F. Kennedy, would remain at the Duke center for about a week before being discharged to recuperate in his Cape Cod, Massachusetts home.
Kennedy underwent the delicate three-and-a-half hour surgery to treat a malignant glioma in the left parietal lobe, an area of the brain which controls speech, among other functions.
After a brief recuperation he is due to begin targeted radiation at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston followed by chemotherapy treatment.
"After completing treatment, I look forward to returning to the United States Senate and to doing everything I can to help elect Barack Obama as our next president," the senator said in a statement Monday.
Doctors have not publicly offered a prognosis for Kennedy. But the US National Cancer Institute has said the outlook for such a diagnosis is poor, with average life expectancy depending on the stage of the tumor, from a few months to up to five years.
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