Neuro-oncology

The Neuro-oncology Program at UT Southwestern Medical Center is supported by the Annette G. Strauss Center for Neuro-oncology, and is conducted in collaboration with the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, as well as with our departments of Neurosurgery and Radiation Oncology. The Neuro-oncology Program diagnoses and treats malignant tumors of the brain and spinal cord, as well as tumors and other cancer-related neurological disorders of the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system.

UT Southwestern’s patient-centered multidisciplinary approach gives patients access to physicians and other health-care providers from the fields of neurology, neurological surgery, radiation oncology, neuro-oncology, neuropathology, neuro-radiology, rehabilitation medicine, neuro-psychiatry and social work. These doctors from the various treating services at UT Southwestern formally meet once a week to discuss each patient’s condition and coordinate their care

At UT Southwestern, patients have immediate access to physicians who are recognized both regionally and nationally for their expertise in treating brain tumors with surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. At the Zale Lipshy University Hospital, physicians in the Department of Neurosurgery perform over 250 operations each year on patients with benign and malignant brain tumors, more than are performed in any other hospital in north Texas. For those patients whose tumors require treatment in addition to surgery, and for those seeking alternatives to surgery, physicians in the Department of Radiation Oncology offer advanced technology, including the Gamma Knife and the Cyberknife. For those patients with malignant tumors that require chemotherapy, physicians in the Simmons Cancer Center are highly experienced in the administration of proven cancer drugs and offer access to clinical trials of new cancer treatments.  These physicians work closely with each other, and with experts from other departments on the UT Southwestern campus, to find the safest and most effective treatment for each patient.   

Tumors of the spine and spinal cord are treated at Southwestern by a team of neurosurgeons who have interest and experience in microsurgically removing these lesions while preserving function and stability and providing reconstruction if necessary afterward. Approximately sixty patients per year with spinal or spinal cord tumors are cared for by our neurosurgeons, the largest volume of instraspinal tumors in North Texas. While most of these tumors are benign and can be completely removed surgically, some are malignant and require additional treatment after surgery, for example, chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy.

The Annette G. Strauss Center for Neuro-oncology, the cornerstone of UT Southwestern’s neurological cancer research, is dedicated to improving available treatments – on an inpatient and outpatient basis – as well as to conducting research aimed at a better understanding of cancer of the central nervous system, including benign and malignant brain tumors and spinal-cord tumors.Through UT Southwestern’s membership in the North American Brain Tumor Consortium sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, multidisciplinary cancer professionals on staff at the center strive to improve treatments through innovative clinical research trials. They focus on projects aimed at creating new treatments for childhood and adult brain malignancies, as well as at improving existing ones. Exciting discoveries from these clinical trials are routinely being translated into reality at the patient’s bedside.