Kennedy returns home after brain surgery

HYANNIS PORT, Massachusetts (Reuters) - Sen. Edward Kennedy, the patriarch of America's most storied political family, returned home to Massachusetts on Monday, a week after surgery for removal of a malignant brain tumor.

"It's good to be back," said Kennedy, 76, wearing a straw hat and looking cheerful as he waved to reporters and photographers waiting outside the Kennedy family compound after arriving with his wife, Vicki, in Hyannis Port on Cape Cod.

Dr. Allan Friedman, chief of neurosurgery at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, where Kennedy underwent the 3-1/2-hour operation last Monday, said Kennedy "is making an excellent recovery."

"He will continue his recuperation at home in Massachusetts under the supervision of the very capable doctors at the Massachusetts General Hospital," he said.

Kennedy, the youngest brother of slain President John F. Kennedy, was diagnosed on May 17 with a malignant brain tumor called a glioma, which usually proves fatal within three years, after suffering a seizure while at home on Cape Cod.

His doctors at Duke said the senior senator from Massachusetts will begin targeted radiation and chemotherapy treatment at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. There has been no word on when he may return to work in the Senate.

His doctors have not specified how much of the cancerous tumor has been removed.

"In the interest of family privacy, there will not be regular updates regarding the senator's daily schedule or treatment plans moving forward," the senator's office said.

The Kennedy compound -- a collection of white clapboard summer homes on six acres of lawn and beachfront on Nantucket Sound -- has been a summer retreat for the Kennedys since patriarch Joseph P. Kennedy bought a home there in 1928.

Locals and travelers in the area welcomed him back.

"Thank goodness he's home," said Cheryl Mason, 46, a resident of Detroit, Michigan, who vacations on Cape Cod. "The sea air will be good for him."

Thomas Little, 78, a Hyannis resident, said he expected Kennedy would want to sail his boat, the Mya, as soon as he is able. The boat was resting at her mooring outside the Kennedy home, sails furled and covered.

"If I know Ted, he'll be ready to sail as soon as his wife gives him the OK," said Little. Although he said he doesn't know Kennedy personally, "if you're from Massachusetts and you live on the Cape, it feels like you know him," he added.

(Writing by Jason Szep. Additional reporting by Thomas Ferraro in Washington. Editing by Cynthia Osterman)