Why not watch it, then, to refresh your memory? You may or may not change your mind. I’d be curious to know what you think.

The video is rather short.

Then I think we are finally in agreement on Tsongas’ medical situation—we just don’t know enough. I think he acted in good faith, though. And I agree that it would have been a bad idea for him to have been president, because his health declined after the campaign and he would have been ill a great deal of the time.

However, on Tsongas’ personality—we very much disagree on that. I remember him as a highly unusual combination of extremely likeable and also quite tough. Did you watch the video? He doesn’t seem the least bit squishy or sanguine to me—no Polyanna there. He was a straight talker, actually. Nor do I see anything unmasculine. He’s not a blusterer, but he’s straightforward.

Lymphoma, as I said earlier, is a complex spectrum of complex diseases.

Large cell v. small cell? Who knows? Very different diseases. Lymphomas can morph from bad to worse over time, and morph in biopsy appearance also.

As a result of our tete-a-tete re Tsongas and his illness, I now think we do not know enough about the actual medical facts, since they come from non-medical sources. But I do know as a medical expert that electing Tsongas to the presidency after TBI was a bad idea. As I said, the bad normal tissue consequences of TBI are many and some quite slow in developing. Never mind the disease recurring in office. Tsongas’ remarks and those of his docs are reminiscent of Hillary and her doc’s BS, putting a good spin on stuff.

Tsongas was a hard guy not to like, or so I remember him. But that was in my squishy semi-liberal days, when I was more gullible politically. I now remember him as a Mr. Rogers for adults. “It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood. Will you be my neighbor?” Part of our national emasculation.

No one’s saying you should have looked into it.

However, you had misconstrued that quote as meaning that Tsongas’ transplant had happened more quickly after his diagnosis than it actually did, although the quote didn’t give a date. You seemed to have based your opinion of his medical treatment on the fact that you thought he had the transplant quickly, and also on a misunderstanding of what his diagnosis back then was (large vs. small-cell?). At least, that’s how I interpret your earlier remarks.

I then offered some more information that should have clarified both points for you—the fact that the transplant was in 1996 and that his diagnosis at the time was small-cell lymphoma. How on earth do you interpret that as meaning you should have done your own extra research? I neither said that nor implied it. I merely did the research for you, later, and asked for your opinion based on the added information. Instead, all you say about it is you considered him a (medical) fool back then for reasons you think you have made clear, and that that opinion stands. But why do you say that? If he had small-cell lymphoma and all other treatments were unsuccessful for three years, do you still think a transplant was stupid? I’m curious why you say that. One of the articles I quoted in this comment of mine had stated:

Tsongas [had] ended his Senate career in 1984 after he was diagnosed [the year before] with small-cell non-Hodgkins lymphoma. His condition worsened despite conventional treatment, and he underwent an experimental operation in July 1986 [he had the transplant].

If his condition had worsened despite conventional treatment, why was it stupid to take that option?

I considered him a (medical) fool back then for reasons I think I have made clear. That opinion stands. He was a Mr. Rogers kind of fellow. Maybe likable, but not presidential in fiber.

No, it’s not a new reference. It’s two new references that clarify something that was left unstated in the old reference.

The facts are that he was diagnosed with small-cell lymphoma in 1983, and had the transplant in 1986, and had a recurrence of lymphoma in late 1992 but this time it was of large cell lymphoma in the abdomen. There is no source I could find that says otherwise. The one you quote—the first one I offered—is merely less detailed.

Take a look at that first source. It says he was diagnosed in 1983 (does not specify small or large cell, so that part is ambiguous). It says he quit Washington in 1984. It says that some unspecified time later he had the transplant. In fact it was in 1986, and you can find source after source that specifies that. In fact, it’s an undisputed fact. Nor does that first source contradict it; it merely leaves it out.

I have no idea why you are having trouble assimilating this. I offered this facts to you because, with your background, I’m curious—now that the facts have been clarified and detailed for you—what you think.

You were basing you old opinion on assumptions about Tsongas’ medical history that turned out to be incorrect, based on an ambiguous account. Now you have new facts that clarify things for you.

Now you cite a new reference, with different dates and somewhat different story. Ah, well.
My remarks about Tsongas, TBI and lymphomas will stand.

If I’m reading your comment correctly, it seems you think that Tsongas had TBI and a transplant shortly after diagnosis—am I understanding you correctly? Actually, he was diagnosed in 1983, and received the TBI and transplant in 1986. See this as well as this. From the latter source (according to which, his original diagnosis was small-cell rather than large-cell lymphoma):

In fall 1983, Tsongas, then the freshman Democratic senator from Massachussets, noticed a lump in his groin as he was showering. In the book he wrote two years later, “Heading Home,“ Tsongas remembered thinking that with a re-election campaign looming and his intention to compete in the Boston Marathon, a hernia was just what he didn`t need.

But it wasn`t a hernia. It was a swollen lymph node, the sort of thing that usually turns out to be a minor infection. However, to be sure, his doctor suggested a visit to the naval hospital in Bethesda, Md.

A biopsy was taken. The result was announced to him in words Tsongas remembers still, “It is not benign.“

Small-cell lymphoma, one of a variety of malignancies grouped under the term non-Hodgkin`s lymphoma, was not only in his groin but had spread to other lymphatic tissues, impairing his body`s ability to fight infection…

In Tsongas` case, doctors told him that with conventional therapy he`d have a handful of years to live. There was an option, however, an experimental medical procedure that would be risky and painful but might snatch him from the grip of death.

In 1986, Tsongas became one of the first lymphoma patients to be treated by a transplant of his own bone marrow.

It was the later recurrence (late in 1992) that was described as large-cell lymphoma. The initial manifestation of lymphoma in Tsongas was the small-cell variety.

Here’s another article that states the history fairly clearly:

[In December of 1992, Tsongas described his recent recurrence as] large-cell non-Hodgkins lymphoma, which affects the lymph glands that produce a type of white blood cell the body uses to head off disease.

[Dr.] Takvorian said Tsongas will undergo full-dosage radiation therapy beginning late this week. He said Tsongas’ ”excellent underlying health should allow him to withstand the physical and mental rigors of therapy.”

But, in an interview, Takvorian added, ”We’re on new territory here, so it’s impossible to make a prediction.”

Tsongas has reacted positively to treatment in the past, and the [new] lymphoma was caught during one of his frequent routine check-ups and didn’t have time to spread, his doctors said…

Tsongas [had] ended his Senate career in 1984 after he was diagnosed [the year before] with small-cell non-Hodgkins lymphoma. His condition worsened despite conventional treatment, and he underwent an experimental operation in July 1986 in which some bone marrow was removed and treated to kill the cancer cells.

In 1987 doctors removed a node from Tsongas’ armpit…

In his medical summary, Takvorian said the latest cancer [the 1992 large-cell growth] is probably an outgrowth of Tsongas’ prior bouts with cancer. But he added that it could also be an entirely new outbreak.

Apparently the 1992 treatment for the large-cell growth was successful in terms of the cancer recurrence, but it was after that (I don’t have an exact date) that he developed myelodysplasia. It was the myelodysplasia and treatments for that (and complications from that treatment, too) that led to his death.

Certain types of “nodular” lymphomas run smoldering courses, and prudent practice then would have been multidrug chemotherapy for a “diffuse” large cell lymphoma, vs. observation if “nodular”. Whether he had nodular or diffuse was never stated. I presume it was diffuse.
That’s what we do today, too. No one with lymphoma gets TBI going out the gate, not even in the earliest days of TBI, which is a scary, toxic treatment. Kills some, cures none.