MANILA, Philippines - “A brain tumor is not something you take two aspirins for,” said Dr. Hazel Paragua, a neurologist of the Cardinal Santos Medical Center (CSMC).
Hence in an effort to reduce the burden of having brain and spinal cord tumors, a core group of brain specialists, including Paragua, has initiated the Brain and Spine Tumor Center at CSMC.
The facilities at CSMC are now considered to be among the most complete and advanced here in the Philippines.
The CSMC center is a team-oriented, multidisciplinary and comprehensive clinical service dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of brain and spinal cord tumors.
The team is comprised of different experts from related fields in clinical neuroscience. They provide expert consultation in adult and pediatric neurology, neurosurgery, adult and pediatric oncology, radiation oncology, neuropathology, neuroradiology, and neuroanesthesiology.
They also offer supportive clinical care by way of pain management, rehabilitation treatment, psychiatric consultations, family counseling and pastoral care for their patients.
The CSMC Brain and Spine Tumor Center has become a truly functional unit, a venue for different medical specialists to gather and discuss how they can help address the needs of brain and spine tumor patients.
Since its inception in 2008, the center’s members have conducted regular intensive and comprehensive meetings once a week to discuss patient cases.
Every case is analyzed, every CT scan or MRI film scrutinized, expert opinions exchanged and possible alternatives exhausted until a suitable, cost-effective and individualized treatment plan is drawn up for each patient.
This saves the patients and their families the time, the anxiety and the confusion of having to shop around for doctors to get multiple opinions.
Using the state-of-the-art diagnostic and therapeutic equipment in the CSMC, the center’s doctors are able to deliver high-quality and holistic treatment to their patients.
Dr. Eduardo Mercado, a neurosurgeon, said, “Because all of the specialists meet on a regular basis, we are able to coordinate our treatment plans more efficiently and tailor these to suit our patients’ specific needs.”
The center, through the assistance of some generous donors and partners, also provides, on a limited scale, quality care for indigent patients who find it difficult to afford the cost of treatment.
The facility is envisioned to be a “one-stop” neuro-oncology center. “We want to be able to deal with all aspects of our patients’ disease under one roof. Patients will not have to shuttle between different hospitals for tests, consults and treatments,” said Paragua.
Since cancer is one of today’s most dreaded diseases especially as it affects the most vital part of our body, it is somewhat comforting to know that there is a place such as the Brain and Spine Tumor Center where patients can go to for genuine reliable help.
The center is led by Dr. Eduardo Mercado, chairman of the Brain Institute; Dr. Theodore Vesagas, director of the Philippine Gamma Knife Center; and Paragua, president of the Philippine Alliance for Brain and Spine Tumors Inc.
Novartis Healthcare Philippines, a multinational pharmaceutical corporation, supports the CSMC Brain and Spine Tumor Center in providing quality healthcare for the patients.