AdamMendelSonabend WorthalterMD

Summary

• I am a board-certified neurosurgeon and physician-scientist with a focus on brain tumors, dedicated to translational research to improve the survival of these patients. My clinical focus is on the surgical management of tumors of the brain and skull base, including gliomas, brain metastasis, intraventricular tumors, CNS lymphoma, meningiomas, and pituitary adenomas, among other tumors. As a surgeon, I integrate techniques such as radiosurgery, fluorescent microscopy, and microsurgery, as well as awake and asleep electrophysiology brain mapping techniques to achieve effective resections while preserving brain functions. Given that many malignant brain tumors are not curable, and resection only offers a limited therapeutic benefit, I integrate the standard surgeries with experimental procedures for novel therapies that are performed in the operating room. I have been involved as investigator or principal investigator in several clinical trials for brain tumors in which I performed convection-enhanced delivery, as well as intra-tumoral and peri-tumoral brain injection of viruses and biological agents, and more recently, implantation of ultrasound devices in the skull. On the other hand, I take advantage of my access to the brain to study fundamental questions of drug brain delivery directly in patients, and tumor biology in human specimens.