Tag: Tumor

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Entertainment

Famed Conductor, Citing Mind Tumor, Withdraws From Concert events

Famed Conductor, Citing Brain Tumor, Withdraws From Concerts

The renowned conductor Michael Tilson Thomas announced on Friday that he would withdraw from performances for the next several months as he recovers from surgery to treat a brain tumor.

Thomas, 76, the former music director of the San Francisco Symphony, said in a statement that he would take a hiatus through October as he undergoes treatment. He said doctors recently discovered the tumor and advised he have surgery immediately. He described the surgery, which took place at the University of California at San Francisco Medical Center, as successful.

“I deeply regret missing projects that I was greatly anticipating,” Thomas said in the statement. “I look forward to seeing everyone again in November.”

Thomas, an eminent figure in the music industry known by the nickname M.T.T., stepped down as the San Francisco Symphony’s music director last year. He had held the post since 1995 and was widely credited with transforming the ensemble into one of the best in the nation and championing works by modern American composers.

Thomas said in the statement that he was canceling his participation in a starry concert with the National Symphony Orchestra in September to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy Center, as well as appearances with the New World Symphony, a training orchestra for young artists in Miami that he helped found; the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, where he was to lead his “Agnegram” alongside works by Beethoven and Copland; and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

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Health

Her Sister Died of a Mind Tumor. Now She Was Having Comparable Signs.

Her Sister Died of a Brain Tumor. Now She Was Having Similar Symptoms.

Humanity has planted flags on the moon, but a moon shot for brain cancer has yet to be realized.

Diagnosis known, we gradually stopped removing more tumor. The more tumor you remove, the longer the average survival time, however lean it may be. But the pursuit of surgical perfection sometimes comes at a cost. In the brain, where critical human functions are packed into millimeters of tissue, removing more tumors and potentially damaging healthy tissue risks loss of strength, speech, eyesight, memory, and more. In glioblastoma, tumor cells that are inches away from the tumor mass and far beyond the reach of tweezers almost guarantee the cancer will recur. Surgical perfection is imperfect. She wanted to keep her strength.

We sewed the dura shut and then re-plated its bone. We carefully closed the layers of her skin. A short time later she was extubated and we took her to our neurological intensive care unit to recover.

“I have seven years to spend with my sister, and a lot of young people die these days, so I try to be pragmatic,” she had told me the day before. Negotiate.

Forty years ago, the median survival time for glioblastoma was four and a half months. Since then, researchers have characterized the genetics of glioblastoma and studied various vaccines, chemotherapy, immunotherapies, cell therapies, new imaging modalities, targeted radiation therapies, and innovative forms of drug delivery to treat the disease. Lots of steps.

The median survival time is now around 15 months. Only a small percentage of patients survive more than five years.

Defeatism is a common feeling among neurosurgeons, but you remain determined, for your patients and for yourself. The next morning our patient was in a good mood, recovered well, with good strength. We carefully shared the diagnosis with her.

“Just my luck,” she said with a smile. She seemed to be expecting it.

Some sibling cancers can be explained by genetics. But that’s not the case with glioblastoma. As for her sister and many others, it was really just bad luck.

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Health

She Suffered Stability Points for Years. Was It a Mind Tumor?

She Suffered Balance Issues for Years. Was It a Brain Tumor?

But when he saw the dental CT, he immediately ordered a conventional CT of her head. The dental scan is designed to get a three dimensional image of the jaw and teeth so it cannot be expected to show the entire skull. Full CT confirmed that there was a small mass in the left sinus. Based on her appearance, her doctor suspected it was a remnant of an infection from the years before. But on the right side was something else: a mass the size of a strawberry had destroyed much of the mastoid bone just behind her ear. It was in the same location as the much smaller abnormality seen in the first few years of MRI. Now it was big enough to compress one of the vessels that led to the jugular vein. The radiologist said it looked like an infection. Or possibly a rare type of bone cancer.

Since cancer was possible, the patient decided she needed a second opinion. She reached out to the Mayo Clinic’s Arizona office in Phoenix, and two weeks later she was supposed to be Dr. Visit Peter Weisskopf. Weisskopf listened as the patient described the dizziness, tinnitus, and hearing loss, as well as debilitating fatigue and the terrible feeling of impending doom. “I’m not sure this mass could be causing all of this,” he said, but he agreed that an MRI would provide important diagnostic information. He suspected that she had something known as a cholesteatoma. These are benign cell growths that become trapped in the ear – or rarely, as in this patient’s case – in the brain and begin to grow. Sometimes these cells are imported into the ear after a chronic infection, but most of the time they stay there during the development of the fetus.

Weisskopf checked the MRI. As expected, the brain tissue showed up as light and dark gray stripes, surrounded by fluid that appears black. But just behind this patient’s ear, embedded in the lower edge of the mastoid bone of the skull, was a large bright white cloud. Because of this appearance, Weisskopf knew what she had. It was a cholesteatoma. Although this is not a cancer, these types of tumors need to be removed. If they stay in place, they will continue to enlarge until they cause real problems. The patient really wanted to have the thing removed. She was sure that it must be behind the symptoms she had been living with over the years.

Removing the bulk required two surgeries, the second late last spring. But it was worth it, the patient told me. The worst symptoms have completely disappeared. Her tiredness and feelings of oppression and doom disappeared after the first operation. But even after the second she still has the tinnitus, which is sometimes very loud. She still has problems with her balance. Your hearing is not as good as it used to be.

Weisskopf does not believe that the mass caused the patient’s symptoms. The patient respectfully disagrees; Where it really matters, with her mood, her well-being, she feels back to something like her old self. And while her doctor can’t make the connection, she’s sure it all came from this growth, which she thought might not have been quite as harmless as her doctors and textbooks say.

Lisa Sanders, MD is a contributing writer for the magazine. Her latest book is Diagnosis: Solving the Most Confusing Medical Mysteries. When you have a resolved case you like Dr. To tell Sanders, write to Lisa at .Sandersmd @ gmail.com.