USC Brain Tumor Center

Our experts deliver comprehensive, advanced care to people living with brain tumors and related conditions.

USC Brain Tumor Center

Our experts deliver comprehensive, advanced care to people living with brain tumors and related conditions.

Clinical Trials

Participating in a clinical trial gives you access to new and promising therapies.

Find an open trial

Donations

Help support vital brain tumor research and innovations in patient care.

Make a gift

State-of-the-Art Brain Tumor Care

At the USC Brain Tumor Center, we offer comprehensive care for adults and children with all types of brain tumors. Our multidisciplinary team focuses exclusively on brain tumors, and we have deep experience from treating a very high number of complex brain tumor cases.

We use cutting-edge diagnostic tools and innovative approaches to design a treatment plan personalized to your precise care needs and type of tumor.

A brain tumor is a growth of abnormal cells in the tissue of the brain. They can be cancerous or noncancerous. We use cutting-edge tools to diagnose your tumor promptly and design a treatment plan customized for you. Procedures we perform include:

  • Complex to minimally invasive surgical techniques
  • Radiation therapy
  • Radiosurgery
  • Surgical resection

Our specialists work closely together to help you achieve the best possible outcome, no matter how complex the tumor.

 

 

Conditions We Treat

  • Acoustic neuroma (schwannoma)
  • Anaplastic astrocytoma
  • Brain metastases
  • Central nervous system lymphoma
  • Chondrosarcoma
  • Chordoma
  • Craniopharyngioma
  • Ependymoma
  • Germ cell tumors
  • Glioblastoma
  • Hemangioblastoma
  • Low-grade glioma
  • Medulloblastoma and other embryonal tumors
  • Meningioma
  • Neurofibromatosis (NF1, NF2)
  • Oligodendroglioma
  • Pineal tumors
  • Pituitary adenoma
  • Skull base/head and neck tumors
  • Tuberous sclerosis
  • Von Hippel-Lindau syndrome

Treatments and Interventions We Offer

  • 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA)–guided tumor removal
  • Advanced neuroimaging (7 Tesla MRI)
  • Awake brain surgery/awake craniotomy with speech and motor mapping
  • BrainPath® minimally invasive parafascicular surgery (MIPS) craniotomy
  • Endoscopic minimally invasive surgery
  • GammaTile® surgically targeted radiation therapy
  • Genomic tumor testing for precision medicine
  • Immunotherapy
  • Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT)
  • Intranasal drug delivery
  • Laser-induced thermal therapy (LITT)
  • Robotic neurosurgery
  • Skull base surgery
  • Targeted therapy, also called precision medicine
  • TrueBeam® radiotherapy (fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy [FSRT])
  • Tumor treating fields (TTFields) therapy

Revolutionizing Brain Tumor Science

Brain tumors are remarkably resilient. As quickly as we find solutions to treat brain tumors, these tumors evade, dodge and take a new route. The greatest challenge is getting ahead of their ability to adapt.

The USC Brain Tumor Center is at the epicenter of expertise on brain tumors. Our center unites visionaries across neuroscience and cancer care to pioneer new techniques and discoveries that are advancing the entire field of neuroscience. Through the strong backing of an academic health system, our team of world-class experts is harnessing the power of our sophisticated technology to discover new treatments to prevent brain tumors from returning post-surgery as well as to stop current brain tumors from progressing.

Some of our most exciting areas of research include:

  • Using artificial intelligence to develop new predictive and prognostic models to help learn which tumors respond best to which treatments.
  • Employing advanced gene therapies to potentially convert cancer cells into immune cells.
  • Creating personalized vaccines made from a patient’s own immune cells to inject directly into a tumor.
  • Discovering new drugs, small molecules and gene therapies to combat tumors in partnership with our own drug discovery center at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center.
  • Mapping the microenvironments within the entire brain. Once we fully understand these microenvironments, we can alter them, denying tumors fuel and transport.
  • Performing epigenetic studies on brain tumor samples to examine gene expression. Preclinical trials using cells from these tumors are essential to identify which therapies might work best for which patients.

Building the Knowledge Bank on Brain Tumors

We have one of the world’s largest neuroimaging archives, including scans of 85,000 different brains, and the largest library of brain tumor tissue in the world.

Our extensive library of brain tumor tissue is on track to become the largest, most diverse library of brain tumor tissue in the world, and it’s where much of the preliminary testing of novel drug therapies happens. We have more than 80 samples that span pediatric, adult and geriatric tumors.

Deep Experience in Cancer Genomics

The USC Brain Tumor Center has made major strides in cancer genomics. Our center is one of the only laboratories in the country with experience studying long non-coding RNA. We are identifying how tumors use these genes and how we can target these genes for better patient outcomes. Using this research as well as other technologies such as gene editing, we have identified personalized approaches to understanding tumor responses to treatments in individual patients.

Discoveries That Benefit Our Patients

At the USC Brain Tumor Center, our clinicians and researchers are solving some of neuroscience’s most difficult and longstanding problems. Pioneering new techniques and making scientific discoveries isn’t simply about the relentless pursuit of knowledge, however, but rather it’s a means to offer the ultimate in compassionate and successful treatments for our patients.

This is why other centers in the region refer their most complex cases to the USC Brain Tumor Center. Not only do our neurosurgeons perform the most surgeries, but they also take on the toughest ones because we are on the frontier of research and development. As a result, the USC Brain Tumor Center treats an extremely high volume of cases in Southern California.

We possess the technology, the brain power and the clinical skill set, combined with access to other pioneering institutes across the academic health system, to continue blazing trails and unlocking the mysteries of the human mind and tumors of the brain.

Learn About Our Work

Learn more about the leading-edge research of our team.

Frank Attenello, MD – Neurosurgeon
Aram Modrek, MD, PhD – Radiation Oncologist
Josh Neman, PhD – Neuroscientist
David Tran, MD, PhD – Neuro-oncologist
Gabriel Zada, MD – Neurosurgeon

BTC Newsletter

Explore what our brain tumor experts have to say on a variety of topics and stay up to date on what’s new.

2024

2023

2022

2021

Clinical Trials

Participating in a clinical trial gives you access to new and promising therapies.

Find an open trial

Donations

Help support vital brain tumor research and innovations in patient care.

Make a gift

Expert Treatment for All Types of Brain Tumors

Your care team includes experts from neurosurgery, neuro-oncology, radiation oncology, neuroanesthesiology, neuropathology and neuroendocrinology.

Our experts are leaders in brain tumor research, generating groundbreaking immunotherapies to help your body fight cancer.

We will design a treatment plan customized to your type of tumor and focused on your well-being goals.

Our program navigator provides access to a full range of support services and helps with follow-up care needs.

We offer convenient appointments, where you can meet with your entire care team on the same day, at the same time and location.

Our specialists have trained at the highest level for decades, focusing exclusively on brain tumors to deliver exceptional patient care.

Leading the Way in Brain Tumor Treatment

Our team of dedicated physicians and clinicians collaborates with leading researchers to provide innovative brain tumor care and achieve the best possible outcomes for our patients.

Gabriel Zada, MD

Co-Director, Brain Tumor Center

David Dinh Tran, MD

Co-Director, Brain Tumor Center

Frank Attenello, MD

Accepting new patients
Specialties
Neurosurgery, Brain and Tumor Neurosurgery, Brain Tumor  View more

Eric Chang, MD

Accepting new patients
Professor and Chairman, Department of Radiation Oncology Med ...
Specialties
Radiation Oncology, Pediatric Radiation Oncology, Brain Tumor

Thomas C. Chen, MD, PhD

Accepting new patients
Professor of Neurological Surgery
Specialties
Neurosurgery, Spine Surgery, Brain Tumor  View more

Frances Elaine Chow, MD

Accepting new patients
Specialties
Neurology, Brain Tumor

Helena Chang Chui, MD

Accepting new patients
Professor of Neurology
Specialties
Neurology, Brain Tumor

Aaron Cohen-Gadol, MD

Accepting new patients
Specialties
Brain Tumor, Neurosurgery, Neurotology  View more
Assistant Professor of Clinical Pathology
Specialties
Pathology, Neuropathology, Autopsy Pathology  View more
Specialties
Pathology, Neuropathology, Ophthalmic Pathology  View more

David Dinh Tran, MD

Accepting new patients
Specialties
Medical Oncology, Brain Tumor

Jason Ye, MD

Accepting new patients
Assistant Professor of Clinical Radiation Oncology
Specialties
Radiation Oncology, Lung Cancer, Breast Cancer  View more

Gabriel Zada, MD

Accepting new patients
Director, USC Brain Tumor Center
Specialties
Neurosurgery, Brain and Tumor Neurosurgery, Brain Tumor

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