Brain Tumor

STANFORD BRAIN TUMOR CENTER
The Stanford Brain Tumor Center combines multidisciplinary clinical care and a strong research program in an effort to facilitate rapid transfer of basic scientific findings into clinical protocols for patients with tumors of the brain, skull base and spine. The Center has innovative clinical initiatives organized under the auspices of the Stanford Neuro-Oncology Program; the Stanford Pediatric Brain Tumor Program, the Stanford Skull Base Surgery Program, the Stanford Tumor Radiosurgery Program, the Stanford Spinal Tumor Program and the Stanford Neuro-Endocrinology Program.

Diseases treated in the Center include both benign and malignant tumors of the brain, spinal cord, skull base, and spine in adults and children. Targeted pathologies include primary parenchymal tumors (including gliomas, craniopharyngiomas, germ cell tumors, and lymphomas), metastatic tumors (including parenchymal, leptomenngeal, and osseous lesions) and tumors of the skull base (including meningiomas, osseous and cartilagenous tumors, pituitary adenomas, acoustic neuromas and glomus tumors).

Minimally invasive therapies, such as radiosurgery, are a particular strength. Studies of innovative treatment currently underway include the following:

• Fractionated radiosurgery for acoustic neuromas
• Timozodamide for adult malignat gliomas
• Oxygenation agents as radiosensitizers
• Combination chemotherapy for pediatric tumors

Brain tumors, or neurological complications of other cancers, often have profound implications for patients and their families. Caring for patients with neuro-oncological disease is a complex task that requires input from many specialists.

To meet these challenges, the Stanford Neuro-Oncology Program has developed an interdisciplinary team whose goals are the following:

• To provide a specific and accurate diagnosis
• To communicate to the patient and the patient's family the nature, treatment options, and possible outcomes of the disease
• To offer both conventional and experimental treatments
• To optimize the quality of each patient's life
• To assist the patient and the patient's family in coping with the disease
  

The Department maintains an active pediatric tumor practice at the Lucille Salter Packard Children's Hospital. Here, advanced multimodality therapy for a wide varienty of brain tumors in children is offered in a collaborative multidisciplinary Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Clinic.

Basic science research efforts within the Department include investigation of the following:

• The regulatory mechanism of tumor angiogenesis
• Tumor angiogenesis as a target for gene therapy
• Gene therapy involving insertion of tumor suppressor genes
• Tumor cell invasion and establishment of therapeutic neuronal grafts
• The utility of bio-chips and cybo-technology in degenerative diseases.

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