Category: News Articles

Mayfield Brain & Spine’s Vincent DiNapoli, M.D., Ph.D. was the first surgeon in the eastern U.S. to perform surgery on recurrent brain tumors using a new radiation delivery technique called GammaTile Therapy. Now, he’s partnered with Oncology Hematology Care and Jewish Hospital – Mercy Health (where he’s also the director of the Brain Tumor Center) for a new study using GammaTile to treat newly diagnosed primary cancer that’s moved to the brain. DiNapoli explains how the treatment works.

Precision medicine is revolutionizing cancer treatment. Instead of using the same treatment for the same type of cancer, precision medicine tailors treatment to each individual. Precision medicine—also known as personalized medicine—takes into account someone’s genes, lifestyle and environment to find the most effective course of action for them.

A cancer patient at Henry Ford with a recurring brain tumor is the first person in Michigan to receive an implanted device as treatment.

41-year-old Thomas Groves II from St. Clair received surgically targeted radiation therapy called GammaTile Therapy. Groves said he hopes this can lead to a medical breakthrough ultimately helping many.

For the first time in North Florida, a unique new radiation therapy for brain cancer patients was used at Orange Park Medical Center in June.

Endovascular neurosurgeon Michael Horowitz performed the GammaTile Therapy, inserting tiny collagen “tiles” into the brain to delay regrowth after a cancerous tumor was removed, according to the hospital.

Patients with some types of cancerous brain tumors require radiation treatment after they have the tumor removed, to destroy any remaining cancer cells.

Neurosurgeon Harish Babu, MD, PhD, is co-director of Upstate’s brain tumor program and director of minimally invasive neurosurgery.

Now there’s the option to have the tumor removed and replaced by postage stamp-sized radiation sources, in the same operation. It’s called GammaTile Therapy.

Imagining a future with new life-saving approaches for brain cancer may soon become reality. “I think the holy grail is some kind of treatment that cures a person from a biologic level. If we could cure without radiation at all that would be ideal,” Mohiuddin says. For the thousands of people diagnosed with brain cancer every year, this future can’t come soon enough. Until then, the addition of new tools such as GammaTile offer some hope for living with brain cancer.

Radiation oncologist Richard Crownover, M.D., Ph.D., and neurosurgeon Analiz Rodriguez, M.D., Ph.D., and their care team at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) have performed the state’s first application of GammaTile Therapy.

Westchester Medical Center recently became the first neurosurgical oncology program in the Hudson Valley* to offer a targeted therapy for brain tumors that can help delay tumor progression, spare healthy tissue and reduce the number of post-surgical radiation treatments – and the side effects that come along with them.

Just after St. Luke’s Neurosurgeon Evan Marlin, MD, surgically removed his patient’s brain tumor earlier this month, he made Pennsylvania medical history.

St. Luke’s announced that by placing five small collagen sponges, embedded with radioactive seeds, into the brain cavity, Dr. Marlin was able to restore his patient’s health after her tumor.

University of Minnesota Neurosurgery Department Head Clark C. Chen, MD, PhD, likens treating his patients with glioblastoma, the most common — and aggressive — form of adult brain cancer, to playing chess.