A multidisciplinary brain tumor team at Children’s National Hospital successfully performed the first treatment with sonodynamic therapy utilizing low intensity focused ultrasound (LIFU) and 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) medication on a pediatric patient.

We sat down with Dr. Michael Vogelbaum, Program Leader of Neuro-Oncology and Chief of Neurosurgery, to discuss stereotactic radiosurgery for brain tumors.

Inherited mutations in BRCA1, BRCA2, and other BRCA-related DNA repair genes confer increased risk of multiple tumor types – particularly breast, ovarian, pancreatic, and prostate cancers. Moreover, it is now clear that many cancers can acquire mutations in the BRCA and other related DNA repair genes only in their tumor cells, even though the patient was not born with the genetic mutation.