Liana Padron was in her mid-20s in 1999 when a mole on her thigh was discovered to be melanoma, a dreaded form of skin cancer. Some lymph nodes were cancerous as well. After successful treatment, she remained well until a year ago, when she had a seizure. The cancer had spread to her brain.
“Some doctors told my family I was terminal, I was going to die,” recalled Ms. Padron, 33, a mother of three. “But it wasn’t like that.”
Among other treatments, neurosurgeon Aizik Wolf, M.D., has used a Gamma Knife three times to focus intersecting radiation beams on Ms. Padron’s brain lesions in incision-free outpatient procedures at Doctors Hospital.
“Dr. Wolf told me he can do it again and again if necessary,” Ms. Padron said. “I realized there was hope for me.”
“Prior to the Gamma Knife,” Dr. Wolf said, “a patient with metastatic multiple
brain lesions was given whole-brain radiation and nine to 15 weeks of survival. Now we have the ability to treat multiple brain lesions and do it over long periods of time while maintaining the patient’s neurological status.”