Joe Biden comforted Meghan McCain on 'The View' about her dad's cancer: 'You have to have hope'

"You gotta maintain hope," Joe Biden told Meghan McCain, whose father John is fighting the same brain cancer that took his son Beau.

Cancer can cause great pain and suffering. But it can also bring people together.

Meghan McCain, a co-host on "The View," shared an emotional moment on Tuesday with Joe Biden about her father's fight with brain cancer, the same type of cancer that killed Biden's son, Beau. And Biden comforted her.

McCain's father is Republican U.S. Sen. John McCain, who was diagnosed six months ago with an aggressive form of brain cancer called glioblastoma. It's the same cancer that killed Beau Biden and longtime Democratic Sen. Edward "Ted" Kennedy of Massachusetts.

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On Tuesday, Meghan shared her grief with Biden, a guest on the show.

"I couldn't get through your book. I tried," Meghan said about Joe Biden's new book "Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship and Purpose," in which the former vice president wrote about his late son.

"Your son, Beau, had the same cancer that my father was diagnosed with six months ago," she said.

"But there's a lot of hope there," Joe Biden responded.

"I think about Beau most every day," Meghan said while holding back tears, "and I was told … sorry … that this doesn't get easier, but you cultivate the tools to work with this and live with this."

Biden then got up from where he was sitting and took a seat beside Meghan, holding her hand as he spoke to her.

"One of the things that gave Beau courage — my word — was John. Your dad — you may remember when you were a little kid — your dad took care of my boy."

"Your dad … became friends with Beau and Beau talked about your dad's courage. Not about illness, but about his courage."

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John McCain, you may remember, was a Navy pilot who was shot down over North Vietnam in 1967 and spent more than five years in brutal captivity before his release in January 1973. He's now in the battle of his life with what many experts consider to be the deadliest form of brain cancer.

"Look, there's a lot of things happening," Joe Biden said to Meghan McCain. "If any of you have someone who is diagnosed with gioblastoma, which is about as bad as it gets, there's breakthroughs that are occurring now. There's four things that are going on. And it can happen tomorrow."

Biden then talked about medical breakthroughs at the University of Pennsylvania in CAR T-cell therapy — attempts to reinforce the body's "T" cells with special antigen receptors, which are then infused into a patient's body to help them better target cancer cells.

"So there is hope. If anybody can make it, (it's) your dad."

Biden, a Democrat, also talked about the political rivalry — and long friendship — he has shared with Meghan's father, a Republican icon in the U.S. Senate.

"Her dad is one of my best friends," Biden said to applause from the audience.

"Her dad goes after me hammer and tong. We were like two brothers who somehow were raised by different fathers or something, because of our points of view."

But Biden said he knew he could always depend on McCain if he ever needed him.

And he gave McCain's daughter a few more inspiring words to live by.

"The thing that I found — and Beau insisted on and your dad's going to insist on — is that you've got to maintain hope. You have to have hope."

Call IndyStar digital producer Dwight Adams at (317) 444-6532. Follow him on Twitter: @hdwightadams.

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