Health Topics

Technology Impacting the Future

Dr. Weinberg:

Sure. are we up to speed? Up to speed is a good question. I think that there's been a learning curve with using this machine. It's not that you just take a patient and you say that we're going to do surgery in the BrainSUITE and, okay, let's go, and you're done three hours later. The learning curve comes with understanding how best to put a patient in the room, how best to have them positioned during the operation, when to get the scan.

And realizing of course that this, doing surgery in this room adds a considerable amount of time to surgery. So if somebody has a tumor that would under normal circumstances require seven or eight hours of surgery, we're talking about adding an additional hour or two just by nature of the fact that you're operating in the BrainSUITE. So for a complex skull base tumor or a very large tumor the surgeon has to realize that there's going to be additional time to do surgery in there.

As far as research purposes, I look at this not just as a surgery laboratory, because it's really not, we do surgery the same way, but it's really an imaging laboratory. So we have involved in this neuroradiologists who are at every operation helping us to perform new MRI scans and helping us interpret them. So the future of the use of this room is going to come with correlating, for example, different types of imaging sequences with what actually the tumor looks like under the microscope. And figuring out better what MRI sequences or tests we can do to help identify brain tumors.

And all of this will correlate with the work that's being done in The Brain Tumor Center with genetics and proteomics and determining if we can figure out blood markers that help us identify tumors even before they grow. And that's the research for the BrainSUITE as all part of the comprehensive center in trying to figure out where these tumors come from, how best to treat them and hopefully one day cure them.

Andrew Schorr:

Amen. So Dean, you listen to this, so you drove 40 miles but it sounds like, I know I went 2,000 miles to M. D. Anderson. I bet you're glad that you made the trip down the road, though.

Dean:

Absolutely. Absolutely. It was worth it completely. There was no doubt in my mind, especially since I used to work down at the Houston Medical Center. My mother is a physical therapist, she worked down there. And just growing up in Houston I knew what a great facility we have in the Medical Center, and just to know that M. D. Anderson is one of the premier cancer places in the world and having it just down the road literally, it was like you said earlier, a no brainer for a decision. I would drive 3,000 miles to get there.

Andrew Schorr:

Well, that's what I was going to ask you, because there are people listening all over the world. So, Dr. Weinberg, so where we are. It sounds like you're very proud of the team that you have there. This is an example of new technology, and the whole goal is from the surgery point of view get out this abnormal tissue and do it as safely as we can. Have people, you know, and I know it doesn't always work out this way, but in Dean's case, to get back to a normal life.

Dr. Weinberg:

I think the one thing that's unique about M. D. Anderson as a whole is the way that everybody recognizes that they're dedicated to take care of the patient. And not goes not just from the team of doctors who are involved in taking care of Dean but everybody from the nursing staff to the, the entire staff, the volunteer network that we have at the hospital. It's really an amazing place

And you mentioned before in terms of the technology and the skull base center and minimally invasive surgery and proton therapies. If you look at all them they're investments by the administration with the recognition that this money is going to be spent to do better things for our patients.

Andrew Schorr:

Right. And I think the important point I want to make too is, you know, if people, whatever hospital or medical center, had unlimited money, they could start to amass some really cool sounding technology, but in the end it's layered on top of the skill of the medical staff.

Dr. Weinberg:

Not a question.

Andrew Schorr:

And so I think that's what's come together here, Dr. Weinberg. As you said, you're doing 850 craniotomies, the whole group is there, in a year, more than anywhere in the nation, and so you know best when these tools, like the BrainSUITE, the intraoperative MRI and the other technologists you have can come in to play. That's the team I'd want, and I know Dean is delighted it's worked out for him.

Dean, I want to wish you all the best with your work as an IT project manager, and as those little kids grow up I hope you're well on your way. I know you're still on sort of a low dose of an antiseizure medicine and trying to see can that be even curtailed. But no more zoning out, right? Hopefully that growth is all gone and you can just go on with your life.

Dean:

Well, the growth is still in there, but the zoning has stopped pretty much so.

Dr. Weinberg:

Hey, you need to reword that. Most of it's out.

Andrew Schorr:

Most of it's out. Right. Right. There you go, buddy. Well, all the best, well, Yes, because there was a lot of work going on there.

Dr. Weinberg:

There was a lot. And in fact he has a very complicated tumor, so it's got to come out through two approaches. But the bulk is out and the part that was causing his symptoms is gone.

Dean:

That's right.

Andrew Schorr:

Good for you. Good for you. All right. Well, we wish you well, Dean.

And Dr. Jeffrey Weinberg, neurosurgeon at M. D. Anderson, thank you for being with us. And we wish you well with your latest technology, the BrainSUITE, and how it all comes together for your whole team there with working and helping people who developed these growths in their brain so they can get the most extensive surgery to help them get better but do it as safely as possible. Good luck to you, sir. Thank you so much for being with us.

Dr. Weinberg:

Thanks for having us.

Andrew Schorr:

Thank you, sir.

So let's talk about what's coming up on our next edition of Patient Power. We're going to have with us Dr. Pedro Ramirez and Dr. Robert Coleman. And we're going to discuss advances in gynecologic cancer, and certainly they're working on advances there. That's what's so exciting about M. D. Anderson in so many areas.

Sometimes you see breakthroughs, sometimes you see incremental progress, but it is progress. And so I know we'll want to hear about that related to cancers that affect women in the gynecologic areas, ovarian cancers and others.

Thank you for being with us once again. As always, we realize that knowledge can be the best medicine of all to help you make informed healthcare choices. And I know Dean and I think we made a good one with M. D. Anderson, but hopefully this is good information for all of you.

This has been another edition of Patient Power brought to you by M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. I'm Andrew Schorr. Thanks for being with us.

Please remember the opinions expressed on Patient Power are not necessarily the views of M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, its medical staff or Patient Power. Our discussions are not a substitute for seeking medical advice or care from your own doctor. That's how you'll get care that's most appropriate for you.