Innovative and Novel Treatments for Brain Tumors at The Long Island Brain Tumor Center
Saturday, September 03, 2011
For patients requiring specialized medical or surgical management for brain tumors, The Long Island Brain Tumor Center at Neurological Surgery, P.C. offers some of the newest and most innovative treatment options for brain and spinal tumors in the county.
Photo: L-R: Lee Tessler, M.D., neurosurgeon; J. Paul Duic, M.D., neuro-oncologist; and Jai Grewal, M.D., neuro-oncologist. Photo © Don Dempsey, White Light Photography
Since 2007, neuro-oncologists at the practice have developed a unique treatment curriculum for patients in the Long Island area and beyond.
“Available treatments are often not sufficient when implemented on their own, so our goal was to put together a comprehensive brain tumor program, offering complementary therapies and clinical trials,” says Jai Grewal, M.D., neuro-oncologist at The Long Island Brain Tumor Center. “By focusing on patient therapies and clinical trials, as well as the latest techniques in radiosurgery, we can effectively pinpoint and treat complex conditions affecting the brain, such as metastatic tumors.”
Even traditional approaches to brain tumor treatment, such as chemotherapy, are offered in innovative ways to maintain quality of life for patients undergoing aggressive treatment.
“Oral and intravenous chemotherapy are typically not offered at other centers,” says Dr. Grewal. “By offering these therapies in nontraditional ways, we have found patients experience fewer side effects, and their quality of life is not as diminished. Many times, quality of life is neglected because of the seriousness of neurological diseases. Yet, it is the most important factor for patients. Steps to enhance quality of life should be incorporated at the beginning of any treatment plan, not just at the end stages.”
Keeping patient comfort at the forefront of treatment, The Long Island Brain Tumor Center features chemotherapy infusion suites, and patients with certain indications can also receive chemotherapy treatments at home.
Ongoing Clinical Trials
Currently, two innovative clinical trials are available to patients at The Long Island Brain Tumor Center. Through a partnership with the National Cancer Institute, the first trial focuses on improving treatment options for patients with recurrent glioblastomas by delivering chemotherapy directly into the tumor, which helps reduce the side effects associated with chemotherapy.
“For patients who have recurring glioblastomas, we can implant a catheter directly into the tumor during stereotactic surgery,” says Lee Tessler, M.D., neurosurgeon at The Long Island Brain Tumor Center, Chief of Neuro-Trauma at Winthrop-University Hospital and assistant professor of neurosurgery at New York University Medical Center. “Once the catheter is placed, it is then tunneled under the skin to the chest where the chemotherapy agent is administered, which allows the drug to be delivered directly to the targeted lesion.”
This clinical trial, which was developed using data from a Japanese study and has been available to patients since 2008, helps not only reduce the side effects associated with chemotherapy, but also determine if adding the angiogenesis inhibitor bevacizumab to the treatment regimen during radiation will improve overall patient outcomes.
Through a partnership with Winthrop-University Hospital, a second clinical trial utilizing hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) therapy to increase the speed of radiation treatments for patients coping with malignant aggressive brain tumors is underway.
“This is a postoperative study that focuses on using HBO as a radiation sensitizer,” says J. Paul Duic, M.D., neuro-oncologist at The Long Island Brain Tumor Center. “Once the tumor is removed and patients begin receiving radiation and temozolomide, the HBO helps increase free radicals, which can help the radiation work better.”
MD News August 2011, Long Island