Brain Tumor Conference Explores Healing, Wellness and Research

CINCINNATI—The 2015 Midwest Regional Brain Tumor Conference, a free educational event for patients, caregivers and family members, will be held from 8:30 a.m. to noon Saturday, Oct. 24, at the Sharonville Convention Center, 11355 Chester Road. Registration and continental breakfast begin at 8 a.m.

The annual conference, "Hope, Innovation, Progress, Support,” is presented by the Brain Tumor Center, a center of excellence within the University of Cincinnati (UC) Neuroscience Institute and UC Cancer Institute. The institutes are joint initiatives of the UC College of Medicine and UC Health. 

Educational sponsorship for the conference is provided by the American Brain Tumor Association.

Topics will include healing and brain tumors, mindfulness and meditation, brain tumor research at UC, minimally invasive brain tumor surgery, and skull base surgery. Breakout sessions will focus on brain tumor types: glioma, acoustic neuroma, meningioma and pituitary adenoma. An additional breakout session will cover wellness.

Featured speakers and breakout session leaders include the following members or affiliates of the UC College of Medicine faculty and the UC Brain Tumor Center:

• Norberto Andaluz, MD, associate professor of neurosurgery.
• John Breneman, MD, professor emeritus of radiation oncology and neurosurgery and associate director, UC Brain Tumor Center.
• Rekha Chaudhary, MD, associate professor of hematology oncology.
• Mary Gaskill-Shipley, MD, professor of radiology.
• Christopher McPherson, MD, associate professor and director of the division of surgical neuro-oncology, with Dale Greene, RN, and Connie Wagenknecht, CNP.
• Luke Pater, MD, assistant professor of radiation oncology.
• David Plas, PhD, associate professor, Department of Cancer Biology and the Anna and Harold W. Huffman Endowed Chair in Glioblastoma Experimental Therapeutics.
• Ravi Samy, MD, associate professor of otolaryngology–head and neck surgery.
• Timothy Struve, MD, chief resident, UC Department of Radiation Oncology.
• Ronald Warnick, MD, medical director of the UC Brain Tumor Center and the John M. Tew, Jr., MD, Chair in Neurosurgical Oncology.
• Geraldine Wu, MD, director, Integrated Behavioral Services, Inc., and volunteer professor, UC Health Integrative Medicine.
• Lee Zimmer, MD, PhD, associate professor and director, Endoscopic Cranial Base Center, Division of Sinus Surgery.
• Mario Zuccarello, MD, professor and Frank H. Mayfield Chair for Neurological Surgery.

Although the conference, parking and continental breakfast are free, participants are asked to register by calling 513-584-8642 or by visiting http://ucneuroscience.com/events/braintumorconference/. An event brochure is available online and can be downloaded as a PDF. Because costs of the symposium rise each year, participants are invited to make a voluntary donation of $20 or more.

Conference director is Luke Pater, MD, a radiation oncologist at the UC Brain Tumor Center.