At Vanderbilt we recognize that when a patient is diagnosed with a brain tumor it is often a time of tremendous anxiety and confusion.  Patients and their family need clear information and guidance to help them understand brain tumors: how they form, how they differ from other tumors, how they are diagnosed, and how they are treated.  We have developed this web site in response to this need to provide patients, their family members, and other physicians with clear information about brain tumors.  It is intended to be a road map and a resource.  Because there are many different types of brain tumors that are treated differently, we have structured this web site to address the different needs of patients with brain tumors.  We recognize that a patient who has just been diagnosed with a brain tumor will be searching for different information than one who has been diagnosed with a tumor for some time.  For NEW PATIENTS, we provide a road map about the basic things you need to know when first confronted with the diagnosis of a brain tumor.  Patients who have already been diagnosed with a brain tumor may be interested in treatment options beyond the standard approaches, such as advanced clinical trials and promising research being conducted to better understand these tumors.

The focus of the Vanderbilt Brain Tumor Center is to provide world-class treatment and support for patients with brain tumors.  In addition to caring for patients, our team of research scientists is relentlessly pursuing a better understanding of these types of cancers.  One of the things that make the Vanderbilt Brain Tumor Center so unique is that our clinicians talk to the basic scientists working in the laboratory.  This allows promising ideas to be rapidly translated to therapies for our patients. 

We have assembled a team of leading experts who specialize solely in the care of patients with brain tumors.  The faculty of the Vanderbilt Brain Tumor Center is made up of neurosurgeons, medical neuro-oncologists, radiation oncologists and neuro-radiologists.  Physicians in each of these specialties have their own area of expertise, but come together to work as a team to provide comprehensive care for our patients.  For example, our Neurological Surgeons specialize in the surgical treatment of brain tumors.  Using the most sophisticated surgical technology available, our surgeons are in the operating room every day doing complex surgical procedures.  Indeed, we average over 400 major craniotomies (operations on the brain) for brain tumors a year at Vanderbilt.  We are not only using the most advanced technologies during surgery – we are inventing them here at Vanderbilt.  Our primary goal in the treatment of patients with brain tumors is to carry out the surgery as safely as possible, while maximizing our ability to remove the tumors.

Patients who have brain tumors need the input of Neuro-Oncologists who specialize in the comprehensive treatment of patients with brain tumors.  The Neuro-Oncologists at the Vanderbilt Brain Tumor Center are leaders in their fields and specialize in advanced treatments such as combination chemotherapy.

Pediatric patients with brain tumors have special needs.  At the Vanderbilt Brain Tumor Center, we have a comprehensive program for children with brain tumors. 

Often patients with brain tumors will benefit from radiation therapy.  This specialized area of medicine requires the expertise of radiation oncologists who develop an individualized plan to use radiation to treat tumor cells in the brain while sparing radiation to the surrounding normal brain.