SAN DIEGO BRAIN TUMOR INSTITUTE

The San Diego Neurosurgery and Spine Institute is pleased to announce the formation of the San Diego Brain Tumor Institute. This entity is being formed in order to satisfy the needs of the brain tumor community in San Diego which has gone without adequate care thus far. There is a dire need for the presence of a comprehensive center to care for patients and their families with brain tumors in San Diego. As well, in this county of 2 million people, there is no neuro-oncology representation, and thus the need for this specialized care requires these patients to leave San Diego in search of a neuro-oncologist. In addition, the coordination of care for patients with brain tumors and their families is a rather time consuming and intensive effort.

The formation of the San Diego Brain Tumor Institute will fulfill these needs in that it will provide comprehensive care to patients with brain tumors and their families. This will and could include coordination of care with other subspecialists, assisting with insurance authorizations and difficulties, providing information regarding therapeutic options in San Diego and outside San Diego, recruiting and setting up a neuro-oncology program in San Diego, assisting with the development of research trials in San Diego both affiliated with and unaffiliated with the major cancer centers in the United States, assisting with the financial and travel arrangements for patients requiring care and/or consultation at one of the major cancer facilities in the United States, etc. The goal of the San Diego Brain Tumor Institute will be to provide assistance with the clinical care of the patients and families with brain tumors, as well as to provide social and possibly even economic support for their care.

This institute will of course include patients with spinal tumors, be they intrinsic to the spinal cord or extrinsic within the spine itself. In order to assist the San Diego Brain Tumor Institute with its mission, the San Diego Brain Tumor Foundation has been set up to provide a vehicle for funding the various social and clinical projects based upon this community's need at the present time not being met. The staff and physicians at the San Diego Brain Tumor Institute represent highly qualified and dedicated individuals who understand the emotional as well as medical needs of this particular patient population, and will endeavor to meet these needs at every level and in every regard.

Read information on the talk by Dr. Timothy Coloughesy head of the neuro-oncology program at UCLA