New Brunswick, NJ – A leading neurosurgeon has performed the nation’s first laser-assisted brain surgery for a specific type of resistant brain tumor using technology so advanced that the patient went home the next day.
Shabbar F. Danish, M.D., Director, Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery and Assistant Professor at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS) and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH), used the Visualase, Inc., laser-assisted thermal ablation technique to operate on a patient with a recurring brain tumor after two previous surgeries and radiation did not permanently destroy the growth.
The technology is the latest addition to RWJUH and RWJMS’s growing expertise in the division of neuroscience. Dr. Danish specializes in the latest in stereotactic neurosurgery, which involves targeting small areas in the brain with techniques used to treat everything from Parkinson’s disease to brain tumors.
New surgical technique uses laser energy to destroy brain tumors
Novel approach is minimally invasive and precise
04:20 PM CDT on Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Wendy Rigby / KENS 5
Perez has had one surgery to remove the tumor, but now the cancer has returned. This time, Dr. John Floyd, a U.T. Health Science Center neurosurgeon, is trying something different.
In an operating room at St. Luke’s Baptist Hospital, the doctor secured an anchor in the outside of the skull. Then, using what’s called neuro-navigation for precision, he slid a catheter several inches inside the head. That catheter houses a laser that can zap the cells growing out of control and threatening Perez’ life.
Lester Beck was the first patient to undergo laser brain surgery at MUSC and is just the 30th person in the world to have it done.
Ray Turner, 33, a Medical University of South Carolina neurosurgeon, performed the first laser brain surgery in the hospital’s history, only the 10th performed in the United States and the 30th in the world. “It’s exhilarating,” he said Thursday. “This is what we want to do in medicine, stay on the cutting edge.”
Dec 2, 2005 … A patient guide. by John W. Henson, M.D., MGH Brain Tumor Center … The exact name and grade of the tumor determine treatment options, … brain.mgh.harvard.edu/patientguide.htm – Cached – Similar
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Jul 29, 2007 … For a list of major brain tumor treatment centers, some of which offer ….. Isn’t the Message” can be found at Steve Dunn’s cancer guide. …
www.virtualtrial.com/faq/Patient_Guide%203.0.pdf
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40 THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO BRAIN TUMORS. National Brain Tumor Society | 800 934 2873 | www.braintumor.org. There are some cases where chemotherapy treatment…
www.braintumor.org/upload/contents/330/GuideFINAL2007.pdf – Similar
Former Graduate Student and Current Assistant Professor in the Department of Imaging Physics at UTMDACC, Dr. R. Jason Stafford is highlighted in The Messenger. (Reprinted with permissions from The Messenger, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center)
Watching Tumors Die
Thursday, April 2, 2009
By Sarah Petrie
Above, from left: Kamran Ahrar, M.D., and R. Jason Stafford, Ph.D., discuss an upcoming spinal surgery that will use the Visualase technology. They’ll be able to watch the tumor fully die in near real time during the procedure. Depending on where the tumor is located, the patient may or may not be awake during the procedure.
History books show that surgeons began removing cancerous tumors as early as the second century. Zoom ahead to 2009, take away the scalpels, scars and side effects that typically accompany surgery, and trade them for a tiny laser beam that zaps cancer dead on the spot. It sounds like science fiction, but our researchers and clinicians are among the first in the nation to investigate a new procedure that does just this … and more.
Shabbar F. Danish, M.D., Director, Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery and Assistant Professor at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS) and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH), used the Visualase, Inc., laser-assisted thermal ablation technique to operate on a patient with a recurring brain tumor after two previous surgeries and radiation did not permanently destroy the growth.
FDA Statement