Brain Tumor Center of Excellence
The newest Center, the Brain Tumor Center of Excellence of Wake Forest University was formed in June 2003 -- the realization of a dream of three of our leading physicians and the chair of the Department of Neurosurgery.
With the goal of being a national leader in patient care and research, the Center has built its program with three basic components: an excellent group of clinicians, a world-class researcher to direct the Center, and a mission to grow the clinical and basic research programs to a magnitude that would place Wake Forest among the top six brain tumor centers in the United States.
Patients come from all over North Carolina, the Southeast and beyond to seek care from this team of highly experienced, nationally recognized experts in all facets of brain tumor treatment and study.
Significant strides have been made in our research goals. The Brain Tumor Center of Excellence has three areas of research focus:
· Novel therapeutics – identifying innovative treatments that will improve outcome.
· Bioanatomic imaging – identifying the unique signatures of a cancer through non-invasive imaging of tumor biology, chemistry and physiology, thus allowing individual treatment planning.
· Radiation-induced brain injury – understanding the mechanisms of injury and ways to prevent and treat side-effects of brain tumor therapy.
Each year, approximately 17,500 primary brain tumors and 150,000 to 250,000 metastatic brain tumors are diagnosed in the United States. Brain tumors are the most common cause of death from childhood cancers, and the cure rate in adults is 1 percent to 5 percent.
It has been said that if a cure could be found for brain cancer, it would solve the mystery of all human cancer. Our goal is to solve that mystery.