Click to request an appointment or call 713.441.3802

refer a patient to the peak center

Calendar

Support the Peak Center

Brain Tumor Programs

The Kenneth R. Peak Brain & Pituitary Tumor Treatment Center houses four programs aimed at providing tumor-specific clinical care and research while fostering interdisciplinary collaboration (multiple medical and surgical specialties).

Brain Metastasis Initiative

The Brain Metastasis Initiative treats patients who have cancer from other areas of the body (primary cancer) that has metastasized (spread) to the brain and/or spine. Treatment combines minimally invasive surgery with stereotactic (highly focused) radiation and medical oncology (chemotherapy drugs) to reduce deaths from intracranial (within the skull) metastases. All patients with brain tumors are offered personalized and aggressive treatment plans including surgery, medical oncology and/or focused radiation therapy. Our novel technology has revolutionized the care for these patients, and in most cases, we can control for many years the cancer that has spread to the brain. These interventions are, for the most part, minimally invasive and spare function.

Pituitary Disorders Program

The Pituitary Disorders Program focuses on aggressive treatment protocols, including dopamine agonists, somatostatin analogs (drugs that mimic natural hormones), minimally invasive endoscopic surgery and stereotactic radiosurgery for patients with pituitary tumors and disorders. Our team of neuroendocrinologists and neurosurgeons, in consultation with radiation oncologists when indicated, work together to construct individualized treatment plans to ensure optimal results. We have experience with minimally invasive surgery in more than 3,700 patients, with success rates higher than anywhere else in Houston and with complication rates of less than 1 percent.

Our surgeons have pioneered many of the minimally invasive techniques used in these procedures, and most patients stay in the hospital for only 24 to 48 hours. Using a multimodality approach, our cure rate and rate of control of these tumors is over 95 percent. Our patients go on to enjoy productive lives and careers, with minimal disruption from treatment.

Glial Tumor Treatment Program

The Glial Tumor Treatment Program focuses on compassionate, intensive and aggressive treatment plans, including minimally invasive surgery. Personalized treatment plans based on DNA and genomic analyses, high-throughput drug screening and proteomics are provided for each patient.

 

After the tumor is removed, we perform intense studies to come up with a treatment plan developed for your specific tumor. In addition to standard analyses, we will analyze the tumor by examining all of the known genes in each specimen, and then determining which genes are defective or altered in a way that might cause the cancer. This information will be combined with the results of testing each tumor against every chemotherapeutic agent available in the United States. The information is synthesized, and an individual treatment plan is constructed based on state-of-the-art scientific information from each patient’s tumor.

Meningioma and Skull Base Tumor Program

The Meningioma and Skull Base Tumor Program provides aggressive, state-of-the-art minimally invasive surgery coupled with focused stereotactic radiosurgery and genomic analysis. The goal is to spare neurological function by harnessing the interdisciplinary resources of neurosurgery, radiation oncology, otolaryngology (ear, nose and throat specialty), neuropathology and neuroradiology.

Kenneth R. Peak Research Center