Touching Minds: A Brain Surgeon & Scientist on Cancer

“The days of when a doctor says we have to do surgery and that’s it…are over…Patients need to be part of the process.” -Dr. Liau Description: Dr. Linda M. Liau, MD, PhD, MBA is Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and Co-Director of the UCLA Brain Tumor Center. In addition to performing brain surgeries, she works tirelessly in the lab to improve the lives of brain cancer patients, including one of the deadliest cancers: Glioblastoma, the disease that inflicted Senator John McCain, Senator Ted Kennedy, and Major Beau Biden. Dr. Liau is the lead investigator on various novel clinical trials for brain cancer patients, and developed one of the first human applications of a personalized brain tumor vaccine. She is on the editorial boards of several scientific/medical journals and is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Neuro-Oncology. Our discussion includes: -How she became a MD, PhD, and MBA -What motivates her -How she thinks of her patients -Second opinions -Choosing a doctor and treatment team -Whether to seek treatment at an academic institution -Immunotherapy and other promising advances -Combination therapies and clinical trial designs -Characteristics of long-term survivors