Get to know our Neuro-Oncology Nurse Practitioner, Vivien Biggs, with an insight into her role, how the role has evolved and how Vivien best assists the needs of our patients and families. How do you think the role has evolved since being established? The role was originally established in 2007 and was titled Brain Tumour Coordinator. The main focus of the role was to provide education and support for brain […]
Metastatic tumors are the most common neoplasm in the brain, occuring in 24-45% of all cancer patients and accounting for 20% of cancer deaths annually. These rates are on the increase due to a boost in survival of patients with cancer because of modern therapies along with increased availability of advanced imaging techniques for early detection. Newer therapies such as immunotherapy prolong overall survival in some cancers such as Melanoma […]
Dr Terry Coyne, Director of the Queensland Brain Institute Prof Pankaj Sah and Neurologist Prof Peter Silburn recently travelled to The First People’s Hospital in China to assist in establishing a Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) service at the People’s Hospital along with a neurosciences research program at the Southern China University of Science & Technology (SUSTEC) in Shenzhen. This is not the first DBS service Dr Coyne has helped set […]
From all the surgeons and team at BrizBrain & Spine, we would like to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year! We’ve had an eventful year and would like to share some of our highlights: We welcomed two new surgeons, Dr Hamish Alexander and Dr Norman Ma Dr Terry Coyne was honoured to receive the OAM medal, bestowed for ‘service worthy of particular […]
The Newro Foundation continues to run unique and world-leading trials towards finding better outcomes for brain tumour patients. We have now followed patients from our initial imunotherapy trial in patients with recurrent glioblastoma (GBM) for over 5 years and remarkably some of these patients continue to show no signs of brain cancer. Our immunotherapy trial for patients with newly diagnosed GBM is about to stop recruitment, with almost 30 […]
Dr Steven Yang has completed a successful Viscoelastic Freedom Lumbar Disc operation for a 35 year old female patient suffering from degenerative disc disease in September this year. The patient suffered from degenerative disc disease with radiating pain as a result of a degenerative lumbar disc at level L5-S1. Conservative treatment failed the patient and subsequently she chose to under go surgery. Dr Yang said the Freedom Lumbar Disc was […]
Significant advances have been made in the treatment of spinal metastases in recent years. Options have evolved from simple decompression surgery or conventional external bean radiotherapy (cEBRT) to complex multi-disciplinary treatments incorporating stereotactic radio surgery (SRS) and minimally invasive surgical techniques (MIS). This is important as 60% of all patients with cancer will develop spinal metastases and 5-10% will develop spinal cord compression. The aims of therapy for these patients […]
Trigeminal neuralgia (aka tic douloureux or Fothergill disease) can be extremely difficult to manage and can cause significant distress for patients with craniofacial pain. In this article, we will explore current treatment strategies to assist in treating patients with severe trigeminal neuralgia (TN). TN is characterised by paroxysmal excruciating, electric like pain lasting a few seconds to minutes. It is often triggered by sensory stimulus: shaving, talking, eating, drinking, washing, […]
Surgery has an important role in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with most brain tumours, including glioma patients with a suspected brain tumour are usually referred straight to a neurosurgeon for that reason. Traditionally, brain tumour surgery has been a core activity and skill for neurosurgeons, but better outcomes for almost all patients with brain tumours (especially gliomas/GBM/malignant glioma) are achieved when the patient is managed by a neurosurgeon […]
That is a VERY good question. Why would the body allow tumour cells to grow and destroy the normal brain? Isn’t the immune system supposed to rid us of foreign and destructive material? The immune system certainly is supposed to do this. It a highly evolved and finely tuned system that in general works extremely well. There are checks and balances built into this system which can go wrong – […]
