Senator McCain Discontinues Cancer Treatment

Sen. John McCain has decided to stop treatment for the brain cancer he has been battling for over a year, his family said on Friday.

Colleagues of McCain, 81, had been bracing for the worst for months as the Arizona senator retreated from public life to fight the disease. But Friday’s news left them shaken nonetheless.

“Last summer, Senator John McCain shared with Americans the news our family already knew: he had been diagnosed with an aggressive glioblastoma, and the prognosis was serious.

In the year since, John has surpassed expectations for his survival. But the progress of disease and the inexorable advance of age render their verdict. With his usual strength of will, he has now chosen to discontinue medical treatment,” the McCain family said in a statement.