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Heather Knies: A 15 Years GBM Survivor Patient
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A freak diagnosis led me to a renowned neurosurgeon—and his decades-long quest to develop medical treatments that use sound. For all the advances in medicine, brain surgery remains a surprisingly barbaric process. I got to learn this firsthand.
In March 2023, just before my 40th birthday, I suffered a seizure while out jogging during a work trip to Nashville.
Later, at the hospital, scans revealed a 4-centimeter-wide tumor in the back of my head.
Within a few weeks,
I was on an operating table at the University of Washington in Seattle as surgeons cut a long, upside-down “U” on my scalp,
peeled back the skin, then made a grapefruit-size opening in my skull through which they could remove the mass.
I lost a lot of blood and spent several weeks recuperating at home—but I was lucky.
The location of my tumor made it operable, and a biopsy later showed it was benign.
In April, I recounted all this to Dr. Neal Kassell, a former co-chair of the University of Virginia’s neurosurgery department.
At 78, Kassell has a slightly rumpled, professorial look.
He’s been nearly blind in one eye since birth and speaks with the chutzpah of someone who spent decades cutting into people’s heads for a living.
Looking over MRI scans of my tumor at his office in Charlottesville, he compared the procedure I went through to dipping into a cookie jar.
The piece of bone that doctors removed to reach the troublesome area gets placed back, just like a lid.
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) is driving dramatic progress in the way the world treats cancer. Last week, MSK doctors and scientists presented a wealth of high-impact research at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, including two practice-changing studies
A multicenter clinical trial led by MSK has discovered the first novel treatment option for low-grade glioma in more than 20 years. Gliomas are the most common type of primary brain cancer in adults, and people with these tumors have few effective long-term treatment options. The study found that the oral drug vorasidenib significantly slowed the growth of certain kinds of early-stage glioma and reduced the need for more toxic therapies, bringing new hope to patients with these cancers. Foundational research for this study was supported by the MSK donor community, including Anthony and Judith Evnin, Cycle for Survival, the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, and the National Brain Tumor Society.
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