I'm sorry your father didn't survive.  My husband was diagnosed with a brain tumor just before we were married.  It was about the size of a soda can and growing on the hearing nerve.  We discovered it when his face became paralyzed.  MRI'S were new then too.  Within a week we were flying across country to Shands Hospital in Florida - to their brand new MRI and teaching hospital.  12 hours of surgery later the tumor was removed.  It wasn't cancerous, and the doctor got all of it (Dr. Rhoton - I still remember him.  He saved my husbands life).

There's still some paralysis and he lost hearing in one ear - but he lived and the tumor didn't grow back (we were told 85% of them did).  The real changes were to his personality, unfortunately.  I ended up married to a stranger.  The brain is a very delicate thing.  I wish Teddy Kennedy well.