Beating Brain Tumors

How the USC Brain Tumor Center is bringing new hope and treatments to brain cancer patients

When 64-year-old Felicitas Gonzales was recovering from surgery to remove a pituitary tumor from the base of her skull, she never could have imagined that eight days later, her Keck Medicine of USC brain surgeon, Dr. Gabriel Zada, would perform surgery on her daughter, Margarita.

After Margarita, 37, came down with sudden severe headaches and nausea, and an emergency room doctor suspected a brain tumor, she sought treatment from Dr. Zada, having witnessed the care he provided for her mother. Dr. Zada discovered an arachnoid cyst, a non-cancerous sac filled with spinal fluid at the back of Margarita’s brain and performed surgery to remove fluid from the cyst almost a week to the day after Felicitas’ procedure. Today, both mother and daughter are doing well and are back to their normal lives.

While it may be rare for a mother and daughter to have brain surgery days apart, brain tumors are unfortunately all too common. Approximately one million people in the United States live with one of the more than 100 distinct types of primary brain tumor, both cancerous and noncancerous.

Our USC Brain Tumor Center

Our USC Brain Tumor Center, which Dr. Zada co-directs, offers comprehensive, multidisciplinary care for patients with all types of brain tumors as well as other conditions such as brain cysts. Twenty core physicians and scientists staff the Center, with additional support from some 70 other health care providers, including nurses, research coordinators, scientists and engineers. Each month, our brain cancer specialists see some 50 new patients on top of the hundreds already receiving services.

The staff is dedicated to patient care as well as developing new diagnostic and surgical tools to manage cancer, such as wearable sensors that track patients’ health at home, and minimally invasive robotic surgery.

They are also currently conducting several clinical trials to offer new hope and treatments to patients, even those with the most lethal forms of brain cancer.

Groundbreaking clinical trials

For example, Dr. Frances Chow, a neuro-oncologist at USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of Keck Medicine of USC, is leading two clinical trials to examine the effectiveness of chemotherapy inhaled through the nose for patients with a glioblastoma, an aggressive, lethal form of brain cancer, and those with a meningioma, a tumor in the membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord. Delivering the therapy directly to the brain through the nasal passages may potentially reduce the impact of chemotherapy on healthy cells throughout the rest of the body and decrease side effects.

Another clinical trial is examining the use of a vaccine created from the patient’s own cancer cells to fight brain cancer. Still another study is investigating the use of a non-invasive device that uses mild electrical fields to prevent brain cancer cells from dividing, which might slow down a tumor’s growth and stop it from progressing further.

The future of brain cancer care

One goal of these and other clinical trials is to move beyond surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, which are the primary treatments available today for brain cancer. While these options may be effective in removing the tumor, surgery can be high-risk, and radiation and chemotherapy can have long-lasting side effects on the body.

Our efforts to fight brain cancer are supported in part by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The Center’s co-directors, Dr. Zada and brain tumor oncologist Dr. David Tran, along with the scientific director of the center, Dr. Josh Neman-Ebrahim, have each been awarded multi-million dollar NIH Research Project Grants over the next five years to invest in brain cancer research. Having three specialists at one institution receive these sizeable grants is a strong testament to the program’s potential to have a profound impact on the future of brain cancer care.

Looking ahead, I am hopeful that one day, fueled by efforts of our USC Brain Tumor Center and other researchers in the field, we will see brain cancer treated like a manageable chronic disease, where long and lasting remission is possible. Dr. Zada himself believes that this vision may be a reality within the next 10 years.

Whatever revolutionary new discoveries are made in the field, I know our brain cancer specialists will be at the forefront. And along the way, patients will continue to receive excellent, life-saving care, just like Felicitas and Margarita Gonzales.

I am hopeful that one day, fueled by efforts of our USC Brain Tumor Center and other researchers in the field, we will see brain cancer treated like a manageable chronic disease, where long and lasting remission is possible.

Rod Hanners, CEO, Keck Medicine of USC

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