The Mount Sinai Brain Tumor Program provides state-of-the-art, comprehensive treatment by doctors in all relevant specialties who are dedicated to caring for the needs of patients and their families. The Program offers an interdisciplinary approach, including team members from the Departments of Neurosurgery, Neurology, Radiation Oncology, and Rehabilitation Medicine, to ensure the highest quality of care. This program aims to improve the quality of life and extend the survival rate of patients with brain tumors.

Physicians at Mount Sinai have extensive experience treating patients with brain tumors and have pioneered some of the most sophisticated technologies to treat these tumors very aggressively.

The Mount Sinai Brain Tumor Program is also a leader in laboratory research that contributes to advance the field of neuro-oncology and treatment of patients with brain tumors. The main focus of the laboratory is to investigate new strategies for adjuvant treatment of brain tumors. With support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), private foundations and Industry, the laboratory has been very productive in investigating new promising modalities and compounds to kill brain tumor cells.

There are two types of brain tumors: primary and metastatic. Primary Brain Tumors include tumors that come from the tissues of the brain or its immediate surroundings.

Common primary brain tumors include: glioblastoma, high-grade gliomas, oligodendrogliomas, low-grade gliomas, ependymomas, craniopharyngiomas, anaplastic gliomas, acoustic neuromas, and pituitary tumors. Meningiomas are also considered primary brain tumors as they originate from the membrane that wraps the brain, grow inside the skull and push the brain, causing symptoms similar to other metastatic and/or primary brain tumors. Patients with primary brain tumors can have quite a variety of symptoms depending on the location and the size of the brain tumor.

Metastatic Brain Tumors include tumors that arise elsewhere in the body, such as lungs, breast, colon, kidney, skin (melanoma), and migrate to the brain usually through the blood stream. Metastatic tumors are by definition cancer (malignancies).

Metastatic Brain Tumors are ten times more common than primary brain tumors. Patients with metastatic brain tumors can have quite a variety of symptoms depending on the location and the size of the brain tumor.