Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
You're watching Brainstorm on ABC27, presented by Hershey Medical Center.
Welcome back, we're just continuing to talk to Dr. Jonah Sean from Penn State Hershey Medical Center.
He is here to answer your questions about brain tumors and brain cancer, we've got doctors in our conference room
ready to talk to you about Alzheimer's Disease, any questions you may have, we should show them the phone
number from time to time just so folks can call in and ask their questions,
but we're going to continue to deal with some other issues here.
Whenever you have a brain tumor, do you know that you have to have an operation, or not necessarily?
No, many patients with brain tumors don't have an operation, they can be definitely treated often with radiation
or chemotherapy or a combination of the two. Sometimes an operation is necessary for certain types of a tumor, it can be
curative, it can be a benefit in terms of quality of life, it can extend survival, so not everyone needs an operation
but many patients benefit from an operation for a variety of reasons.
Now one of our viewers was on ABC27.com and she submitted the question that her mother had a brain tumor
does that make her more likely to have a brain tumor.
Now, we get that question all the time, there are a few rare hereditary syndromes in which brain tumors are common.
Those are fairly rare situations. Typically, if a loved one or family member has a brain tumor
that doesn't increase your risk substantially of having a brain tumor yourself.
Someone else wrote in and said their friend had a brain tumor and decided to go into some sort of
experimental, like a clinical trial. Do you suggest that, is that something for a last resort, what do you say?
Well there are a variety of types of clinical trials. Some are only for last resort patients, some are a randomization
between two treatments that we think are very good and we're trying to find out which is the better of the two.
In general clinical trials are safe, they are federally regulated,
and no clinical trial can be conducted without some reasonable security or safety.
Okay, you know, people get headaches, we all know people who have persistent, strong headaches.
How often is that a serious sign?
Headaches can be a problem, but they're rarely from brain tumors. Most patients with brain tumors have a headache
associated with a tumor, but very few patients with headaches have a tumor associated with them.
Okay. And again, we just wanna remind folks that the phone number you can call is 346-3333, and we're gonna
show you right now, where your phone call goes. Valerie Purchase standing here with five doctors
answering your questions. Val!
That's right, and they're very busy here, we had audio problems earlier, but I'm telling you
even with those, I was sitting here and the phones kept ringing and ringing and you can see, all of the doctors
are taking calls at this hour. Now, the number that we give you, that 346-3333 will put you in touch
with a doctor, now some of the questions that come in, we're not going to put your name out there
or personal information about you, but some of the questions we might wanna share with our audience, we just
wanna let you know that, but we will respect your privacy and again as you can see the doctors are busy at this hour
very few times do I see a phone down, so, there we go, phone's picked up again, Alicia, I know we're going to be
checking in a little later and we're going to be introducing you to a family who, their daughter had a brain tumor
and worked through that, we're going to be talking about those issues as well, so we'll get back to you in a little bit.
Alright, Val, thanks very much, and it's nice to see people calling in, it doesn't surprise me, people concerned about
these kinds of issues. We wanna run another story now.
The research behind brain tumors is constantly changing, and important work is being done right here at home.
Amanda Barton tells us about some recent breakthroughs.
Two big discoveries have been made here in in the Neurosurgery lab of Penn State Hershey Medical Center.
Leading the charge: Dr. James Connor. The goal of his team: to find a cure for brain tumors.
We have been able to find a bit of a magic bullet if you will, so that we can take cells that we call lyphosomes
really sort of smart little fat cells, and we can put drugs in those smart little fat cells that will kill tumors.
The direct delivery of drugs targets the tumor and minimizes side effects.
The drug is confined just to the tumor cells here, so this is the excitement that we were talking about that we don't
damage the normal healthy cells in the brain.
The other recent discovery: researchers have pinpointed a genetic mutation that could be a risk factor for certain aggressive tumors.
Looks like we discovered a new drug that by using these tumors and screening a whole range of drugs
we found a new drug that might be effective against not only tumors that are resistant but a broad range of tumors.
All of this means a big advantage for patients. Researchers work closely with brain surgeons to keep them up to date
on treatment options. Both teams meet twice a month in a conference room like this to discuss breakthroughs and share information.
At the end of the day, we can sit down and they can see, these are the problems we're facing, this is what we need
we need a better target for the tumor cells, we need another drug, what can we do together to move this forward?
All aimed at improving patient care.
At Penn State Hershey Medical Center, Amanda Barton for ABC27.
Alright, and still to come tonight, more questions to answered,
and brain cancer survival stories from some very young patients, we'll be right back.
Brainstorm by ABC27 is presented by Penn State Hershey Medical Center.