Chapter 16: MD Anderson\u27s Horizonally-Organized Brain Tumor Center

In this chapter, Dr. Yung focuses on the Brain Tumor Center, created via the working relationships and shared resources that link sixty members from Neur-oncology, Neuro-surgery, Imaging, Neuro-pathology and other services. Dr. Yung explains that these working relationships enable neuro-focused members to get individual and multi-investigator funding, and that the SPORE grant is a triumph of the Brain Tumor Center. Dr. Yung next comments on the difficulties of formalizing the Brain Tumor Center as a self-contained unit within MD Anderson. (This discussion refers to the fact that the head of Neuro-Surgery, Dr. Raymond Sawaya, is an advocate of such independent status. Dr. Sawaya discusses this at length in his oral history interview.) Dr. Yung cites the enormous cost of running an independent Center, given the expense of the technology required. Dr. Yung says that the Brain Tumor Center will enter a new phase when a new chairman of Neuro-Oncology replaces him. He also feels that the Center currently offers a solid platform to expand immunotherapy with a new emphasis on T-cell function.https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewchapters/1275/thumbnail.jp