First fully-integrated neurosurgical center of its kind in U.S.
The trend toward integrated care and multi-disciplinary treatment continues to grow in the United States. That’s good news for glioblastoma brain cancer patients. Add Saint Thomas Hospital’s new Unity System to those medical centers that are taking an integrated approach with leading edge technologies such as Brainlab Brainsuite®, VISIUS Surgical Theatre™ by IMRIS with intraoperative MRI and TrueBeam™ STx with Novalis® Radiosurgery – paired with real time collaboration of medical experts to care for patients with brain tumors.
Last year, it was also the first center in the Southeast to begin enrolling patients in a new late-stage clinical trial for the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme using a personalized cancer vaccine.
Dr. Paul Rosenblatt, chief of radiation oncology at Saint Thomas Hospital and co-medical director of the Saint Thomas Brain and Spine Tumor Center, said it very well. “While brain tumors impact a small percentage of the population, this disease has a dramatic effect on patients, their well-being and their families. The Unity System will allow us to provide a better quality of life for brain tumor patients and their families – and means a dramatic improvement in their chances to thrive.”
This is what The Elliott Foundation is all about. Our nationally recognized integrated patient support program includes the whole patient — their physical, emotional, and financial needs, and includes their families and caregivers. That approach is proven to extend lives. Be a part of the cure.Donate today!
Do You Know the Symptoms for Brain Cancer?
May is National Brain Cancer Awareness Month and it’s a good time to build awareness about how this disease can strike anyone at any time. In 2008 I worked with the late Senator Ted • Kennedy to advocate Congress to establish a national brain cancer awareness month in the hope of building greater public awareness about this terrible disease and to see more research dollars focused on advance treatment options for patients. Education is key. There is no early detection for brain cancer, so do you know the symptoms?
Common symptoms of brain tumors include:
•New or increasingly severe headaches
•Changes in vision
•Nausea or vomiting
•Abnormal fatigue
•Tremors or seizures
•Speech problems
•Memory loss and personality changes
•Weakness on one side of the body
•Sudden facial paralysis
•Impaired sense of balance and problems with spatial orientation