In this episode of Rewired Minds, Bri Salsman speaks with Laura Jaros and Dr. Amy Heimberger from the Northwestern Medicine Malnati Brain Tumor Institute. They discuss the unique, multidisciplinary approach to brain tumor care, the evolution of treatment options, and the exciting research being conducted at the institute. The conversation highlights the importance of teamwork in patient care, innovative treatments like Optune and the Stupp protocol, and the future of brain tumor research, including promising new therapies.

• A great team is essential for optimal brain tumor care.

• The Northwestern Medicine Malnati Brain Tumor Institute has a long history of collaboration.

• Patient-centered care is at the core of who MBTI is.

• Innovations like Optune and the Stupp protocol have changed treatment standards.

• Glioblastoma patients at Northwestern have better survival rates than the national average.

• The tumor board at MBTI ensures comprehensive treatment planning.

• Research at MBTI focuses on both current and future therapies.

• The blood-brain barrier presents unique challenges for drug delivery.

• New immunotherapy strategies are being developed for glioblastoma.

• The importance of communication among specialists enhances patient outcomes.

 

Check out a list of the most common medical terms relating to the brain tumor experience: rewired-minds.com/terms

 

Connect with Northwestern Medicine Malnati Brain Tumor Institute

Website: https://www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/sites/brain-tumor/index.html

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BrainTumorInstitute/

Instagram: @neurosurgerynm

TikTok: @neurosurgerynm

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/malnati-brain-tumor-institute-at-northwestern

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Disclaimer

The stories and experiences shared in this podcast are personal accounts from patients, survivors, caregivers, family members and friends affected by brain tumors. This content is for informational and awareness purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Always consult with qualified healthcare professionals regarding your specific situation and treatment options. Most importantly, take care of yourself as you listen and process.

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Transcript

Bri (00:00)

The stories and experiences shared in this podcast are personal accounts from patients, survivors, caregivers, family members and friends affected by brain tumors. This content is for informational and awareness purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Always consult with qualified healthcare professionals regarding your specific situation and treatment options. Most importantly, take care of yourself as you listen and process.

 

Bri (00:25)

While this isn't a medical podcast, sometimes guests will use medical terminology when they're sharing their experiences. To help maintain the primary storytelling purpose of this podcast while also providing basic explanations, I've partnered with Northwestern Malnati Brain Tumor Institute to provide definitions of some of the most common terms.

 

The full list can be found in the show notes and there are a few terms that come up in this specific episode that I want to share before you listen. A tumor board is a meeting where a team of different specialists, including neurosurgeons, oncologists, radiologists, and pathologists discuss a patient's case together to recommend the best treatment plan.

 

Glioblastoma or GBM is the most aggressive and fast growing type of astrocytoma. It is the most common malignant brain tumor in adults.

 

The blood-brain barrier is a protective layer of tightly packed cells that surround blood vessels in the brain and controls what substances can pass from the bloodstream into brain tissue. This barrier protects the brain, but can also make it harder for some medicines to reach brain tumors, making them challenging to treat compared to other cancer or tumor types.

 

Immunotherapy treatment helps the body's own immune system recognize and fight cancer cells. These treatments work by boosting or changing how the immune system responds to the tumor.

 

ENT refers to ear, nose, and throat.

 

And finally, translational research takes discoveries from the laboratory and turns them into new treatments that can be tested and used in patients. This type of research helps bridge the gap between scientific findings and actual medical care.

 

Bri (02:18)

I'm Bri Salsman, a brain tumor survivor and life coach, and you're listening to Rewired Minds, a podcast where we share brain tumor stories that change us.

 

Bri (02:26)

Today we're spotlighting the Northwestern Malnati Brain Tumor Institute in Chicago. This is an extra special conversation for me because it's where I've received all my treatment and ongoing care. So I was thrilled when they were willing to join me for a chat. Joining me to share more is Laura Jaros, who is the program director and Dr. Amy Heimberger, who is the scientific director at MBTI and the Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Neurosurgery at Northwestern Medicine. She's also a practicing neurosurgeon, if that wasn't enough. Welcome, ladies.

 

Amy Heimberger (02:59)

Delighted to be here alongside your audience.

 

Laura Jaros (03:03)

Hello.

 

Bri (03:04)

So glad to have both of you here. Of course, I'm very familiar with MBTI and what you offer because I'm a patient of yours, but I know a lot of our listeners don't. So I'd love for you to share a little bit about what the MBTI offers and how is it different from any other program or center that exists?

 

Amy Heimberger (03:24)

I think a lot of times when patients get a diagnosis of, let's say, a tumor or something that's abnormal with the brain, certainly that's an extremely scary situation. And sometimes folks get a referral to a particular place or person because of what I call a famous doctor. In other words, you know, they're well known, you know, they get referred to that person specifically.

 

And certainly there's nothing wrong per se with that. You know, recommendations are wonderful and I encourage that. The issues that can be challenging, however, are the fact that when you have a brain tumor, typically it's not one doc that needs to take care of you. And you need to have folks that are kind of the best in their field and a team that is really tuned and is an expert. at taking care of folks with these kinds of conditions. So certainly you want a great surgeon as a starting point if you need surgery to make sure you get the best possible surgery, lowest risk of potential complications. You also need a world-class neuropathologist.

 

When I started out in the field, let's say 10, 20 years ago, the pathology was done based on stains from the 1880s, where you'd stain the tumor with color and put it underneath a microscope, and you make the diagnosis. The era is now in genetics, what's called molecular profiling, and that has completely changed our definition of certain types of brain cancers.

 

And why is that important? Well, some things look exactly the same underneath the microscope. And if your doctor thinks that it's something like, let's say, a glioblastoma, when in reality it's something more benign, and you go through a very aggressive treatment and you don't need it, well, then that's been a problem. You may have gotten a great surgeon, but if the diagnosis was wrong, the outcome is not going to be optimal.

 

Bri (05:31)

Hmm.

 

Amy Heimberger (05:32)

You don't want just a great neurosurgeon or a great neuropathologist. You want a fantastic neuro-oncologist who knows ‘okay, we have those clinical trials here, but there's also a clinical trial based on the genetics of that cancer that you would qualify even for someplace else.’ And we know about it because we keep abreast of the literature and maybe some of these clinical trials, we are even the national and international leaders of.

 

Finally, you wanna have a great radiation oncologist if you do need radiation. There's different types of radiation. Some radiations are used better for certain types of cancers relative to others. And also there are certain ways they can design the radiation fields so there's less toxicity associated with those treatments.

 

So if you go one place and let's say you pick it because of let's say a star person in one domain and the rest of the team doesn't have the strength, then although that star may implement in one sort of area, you're not going to get the desired optimal outcome. So it's really important that when you have something, especially if it's life threatening, it's going to impact your personality, who you are as a person, your ability to move, how you interact with the world. You want a great team, not just a great doctor.

 

And that's really where Northwestern excels because there's a great team of neurosurgeons, there's multiple neuro-oncologists, including neuro-oncologists that have completely changed the standard of care in the last 10, 20 years. And you want great neuropathologists who set the standards for how certain tumors are called. And you want great radiation oncologists to take care of.

 

Bri (07:17)

The word that keeps coming to mind as you're describing this is wraparound support. It's not just any one person or two people. It's a team of people who are going to almost wrap their arms around you in a certain sense and take care of all aspects of this.

 

Amy Heimberger (07:32)

Correct. And the other thing we do is, we also have a tumor board. So even though a patient may see one particular neurosurgeon or one particular neuro-oncologist, it's a whole team of docs that help try to pick the very best and optimal treatment and options for patients. So again, this is not something that the patient necessarily has to show up and sit there and wait through, you know, in a waiting room, that kind of stuff, it is all happening behind the scenes. But that multidisciplinary effort is extremely important for outcomes. And it does make a difference.

 

So let me give you an example. One of the highest and most malignant types of brain tumors, a primary brain tumor, is something called a glioblastoma. And it's highly invasive. You can't cure it with surgery or radiation or chemotherapy or immunotherapy. You can certainly delay survival. But for patients that have glioblastoma that are treated at Northwestern, the median survival is about 20 months. And that is over double what is the national standard. So having all of these doctors trying their very best to help you, they do have an impact

 

Bri (08:47)

And I imagine, you know, as you're describing this team that has been built at Northwestern, it didn't start this way, right? This is something that is built over time. And so I'm kind of curious what did the brain tumor community look like when MBTI first came about and what kind of need was being filled?

 

Laura Jaros (09:08)

Yeah, I mean, MBTI as we know it has existed in some form or fashion for over 30 years. And actually the tumor board that Dr. Heimberger mentioned, has actually existed since 1993. It is not a new tool for us.

 

It is deeply embedded in our culture. That collaboration, that cross-disciplinary support to really make sure that we're providing the very best that's available for patients is very deeply embedded in who we are. And MBTI's history is actually really tied to people like yourself, folks who are deeply passionate and committed and connected to the mission.

 

So we started about 35 years ago. And at that time, a group of very dedicated and driven patients, some advocates, a few other folks came together and said, hey, we need a world class institution in Chicago that is not only going to provide the best care for patients today, but they're going to create the future care. And we wanna help them put that together. And around that time, our current surgical director, Dr. James Chandler was joining the institution and sort of these two forces came together and they led to the development of the Northwestern Brain Tumor Institute, which was a multidisciplinary clinic inclusive of neurosurgery and neuro-oncology. Very novel for its time.

 

So really MBTI's mission boils down to three very basic things. First, we want to provide the absolute best care to patients today using any and every tool available in our arsenal. But those tools aren't always exactly where we want them to be. So our second point is to be laser focused on unlocking new discoveries that we hope are going to continue to move the needle on care and ultimately shape future treatments.

 

Our stretch goal one day is really to cure these conditions. But as much as I'd love to believe that those cures are on the horizon in the next few years, they're probably not. So that takes us to the third pillar of our mission, which is to train the next generation of doctors, of scientists, of people that are going to continue taking care of the patients and continue to advance the science so that we're always having that forward progress.

 

And the backbone of that was those very passionate patients and advocates who grew into what is today our advisory council or an advisory board that helps us with shaping our strategy, fundraising, and really holding us accountable to achieving our mission.

 

Bri (12:12)

Yeah, am. All I keep hearing is trendsetters, medical trendsetters. I love it. I love it. And and the other thing I'm hearing, too, and not only just hearing, but from personal experience, this very patient-centered approach. Every single person that I have interacted with from the moment I step on Northwestern's campus makes it a positive experience.

 

Whether that's my doctor, whether it's a nurse, whether it's a tech. Just the other day I was there and there was a lady wiping down tables in the lobby and we got into conversation and she just had a smile on her face and she was greeting every single person that came through that lobby. And I can guarantee you that probably was not part of her job description, but that's what makes Northwestern unique to me anyway as a patient that that patient-centered approach is not just words, but it's an experience for sure.

 

Laura Jaros (13:05)

It's so heartwarming to hear you say that, Bri, because it's exactly what our team wants to convey. We want to create this warm and welcoming environment. And there's a whole engine behind that. The wheel is turning with the scientists and the new research and training the next generation and keeping this forward momentum that we have going so that we can ultimately, you know, reshape the future for patients, right?

 

Our goal, our lofty, but achievable one day goal is cures. But knowing that everyone on our team is having that impact and creating that warm feeling for you and for others is the, some of the best praise that I think the team could ever, could ever get.

 

Bri (13:50)

Hmm, I love that. And speaking of research, I know that you all have led not one, but two standard of care advances, Optune and the Stupp protocol. I'd love to learn more about each of those if you can share.

 

Amy Heimberger (14:10)

Dr. Roger Stupp is one of our neuro-oncologists, here at Northwestern. I always get a chuckle about it when they've named it after him. But Dr. Stupp was involved in the pivotal clinical trial of a drug called Temozolomide. Before that, there was a lot of side effects from medications. Temozolomide is a more gentle type of chemotherapy. You can give this by mouth. These are pills. Typically, they're given on a one through five of a 28 day cycle. And usually they're pretty well tolerated for folks. But this was added on to the previous standards of care.

 

Going back to the 1970s, the treatment for glioblastoma, typically it would be some surgery, some radiation and the drug for BCNU or CCNU. So the radiation improved technically, the surgeries certainly improved technically. And then there was the shift to the drug, Temozolomide. And this was published in New England Journal of Medicine. And what this study showed was that Temozolomide was another essential tool in our kit to improve the survival of these patients and delay the progression. And it seems to work particularly

 

well in patients that have something called MGMT methylated cancers. Now I know that sounds like quite the mouthful. Here's an easy way to kind of, and this is how I teach the medical students to remember. If it's unmethylated, you're unlikely to do as well with Temozolomide. So that's kind of a little mnemonic to sort of remember which way this goes. So if you're MGMT-methylated, almost all of those patients are automatically going to go on Temozolomide.

 

So the first standard of care that Dr. Stupp was a huge advocate for and really helped push the field forward was Temozolomide. And then the second one that Dr. Stupp was pivotal in being involved in is tumor treated fields. And so this is a device, it goes on the scalp. The late phase clinical trials demonstrated there was an increase in survival for those patients that use the device. And so that was the second standard of care change for glioblastoma.

 

The one challenge we have compared to other cancers or patients that have other types of cancers is something called the blood brain barrier. And that means that there's only a handful of drugs that really get past that and can achieve a concentration that's sufficient to kill those cancer cells in the brain. So people that have like lung cancer, breast cancer, et cetera, their doctors have many other things that they can give their patients.

 

If this doesn't work, they can try something else. We're more limited because of this blood brain barrier component to our cancer. It's a natural way that the brain uses to protect itself so that certain drugs don't enter the brain. Now, in most cases, that's a good thing, but when you've got a brain cancer in your head, it's not necessarily a good thing. You want that drug in there to kill those cancer cells.

 

So our program now is an international leader in a way of opening the blood brain barrier. So what this has now done is because of this research, we have now a much larger, what I call therapeutic compendium. So drugs we typically can’t use in glioblastoma patients or patients with brain cancers, we now can because of this opening strategy. And so those are now phase three, that's the last stage of clinical trials, before the FDA reviews it to see if it's gonna be an accepted standard, i.e. a new standard of care.

 

Bri (18:06)

That's amazing. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and I'm sure all the listeners are as well that does get approval. And you've of course mentioned glioblastoma. I know that you all treat other brain tumor types. What about metastatic brain tumors?

 

Amy Heimberger (18:23)

So here's how this happens. So you have cancer, it may be floating around. A single cell could break off from the cancer of the lung or the breast. Your brain has a lot of blood vessels. You have two big arteries here in your neck called the carotid arteries. A little cell gets into those arteries and then it goes up to the blood vessels in the brain and then those cells lodge in there. And so then those cells, because it has lots of nutrients and lots of oxygen in the brain, those cells start dividing and they can set up little metastases.

 

Now the brain metastases are not quite as protected by the blood brain barrier relative to some of the types of gliomas, especially lower grade gliomas. So some of the drugs do get in for certain types of brain metastases. And things like melanoma brain metastases can respond very nicely to things like immunotherapy and some targeted therapies. And certainly other types of cancers can respond very nicely to focal radiation, something that we call gamma knife or certain targeted therapies. But it can certainly be a challenge if those systemic treatments and others, those chemo or those immunotherapies are not working anymore.

 

One of the biggest challenge for clinicians and which we actually have a group of oncologists that are very focused on this is something called Leptomeningeal disease. And I know that's a mouthful. It goes by their little name, LMD. That makes it a lot easier, I think, as opposed to leptomeningeal disease. But that's where the cancer gets into the cerebral spinal fluid. And that is really dire because it's very, very difficult to treat. And those cancer cells float around in that spinal fluid. So it coats the brain, the base of the brain, and the spinal cord like an icing.

 

And so people can develop hearing loss, or problems with swallowing, or they can lose control of the bowel and bladder. And the treatment for that has been very, very challenging and still remains a challenge. We do have a number of clinical trials, including ones that have been developed by our group, but that is where we need to focus efforts. So even though glioblastoma is dire, there's other things that are also dire.

 

And so we certainly need to spend more effort working on treatments when people are in that scenario.

 

Bri (20:52)

And these are all things that you all have the team and the resources and the equipment and the technology to walk patients through their options and whatnot, regardless of whether it's metastatic, whether it's primary. Am I understanding that correctly?

 

Amy Heimberger (21:09)

Correct. Now, there are specialists, so we've actually triaged patients into specialties, super specialists, so that they're really seeing the right person. So if you show up at the Malnati Brain Tumor Institute and you got leptomeningeal disease, you're gonna be seen by one of the neuro-oncologists that has clinical trials and takes care of a lot of these kinds of patients. 

 

Same thing with neurosurgery. We're broken down even into subspecializations within that field. So for example, if you have a tumor at the skull base, that requires specialty training. And so if you've got a tumor that's down low that requires certain approaches and maybe even ENT to come in with the case, then you would actually be sort of triaged or moved into the clinics where those doctors do it all the time.

 

Same thing with low grade gliomas. We have special teams of neuro-oncology neurosurgeons that do awake craniotomies where we wake up the patient in the middle of the surgery and we test their language and make sure that the approach is not impacting either their language or how they're moving or whether they can conduct mathematics, et cetera.

 

And let's say you have a pituitary tumor. So I'm giving you whole bunch of different types. We even have groups of neurosurgeons who specifically deal with that. So even though you may get a name, what we do is when we see someone in the clinic, we look at the history and physical, the information that we have, and we wanna make sure that that patient is matched with the best neuro-oncologist or best neurosurgeon within the entire portfolio of available clinicians.

 

Bri (22:55)

Yeah. And I've even experienced that myself, with, with my neurosurgeon, he's kind of been my primary point of contact, if you will, for, for many years, but in my recurrence recently, my team has expanded and he has been very transparent about, this is what I'm thinking, and also this is not my specialty, we have someone on the team that it is and we have the team here, we should leverage them. And so I, now my team has expanded into what you're describing, a team of very focused specialists to help me with each aspect of what I'm experiencing. So I absolutely have experienced that myself.

 

Amy Heimberger (23:35)

The folks here talk to each other. 

 

Bri (23:39)

Yes.

 

Amy Heimberger (23:40)

We do not see this as, you stole the patient from me. That's absolute nonsense. We want the patient to have the very best outcome. And if someone does a large volume of a particular type of case, we've seen it over and over and over again, the outcomes are better. And so it's much, much better for everyone involved that that individual sort of assume the helm for whatever period of time is necessary. Sometimes patients get transitioned back or over to somebody else. So that communication does happen.

 

Bri (24:19)

Mm-hmm.

 

Amy Heimberger (24:20)

And so the neuro-oncologists and the neurosurgeons are so closely integrated. The neuro-oncologists can barely get out of the patient's room and I already have a text or a call from the neuro-oncologist. So a lot of times I just walk down the hall, the patient's still in the same clinic room, walk down the hall, walk in the room and say, hi, let's talk about the imaging and let's go through your options here in this scenario. So it's that communication going back and forth, that constant sort of between pathology, neurosurgery, neuro-oncology, radiation oncology that really optimizes that care. You're not waiting three weeks for one doctor to talk to another.

 

Bri (24:58)

Yeah, and I will say too, you know that that aspect has been the number one thing that has given me confidence in the team at MBTI because it's not a secret that you all communicate with one another. You know, all of my doctors say, I just spoke with so-and-so or I connected with this doctor and I'm trying to be careful not to name my specific doctors, but you know, they're very transparent about these conversations that they're having, which gives me confidence as a patient to know like, okay, they're communicating with one another behind the scenes and also being transparent with me about things that they're seeing. And when I go from one appointment to the next, I'm hearing the same thing reiterated again and again, which makes me feel good about the care I'm getting as well.

 

I would love to learn about the future. What are you all excited about on the horizon?

 

Amy Heimberger (25:49)

Oh my goodness, well, there's a couple of things here at Northwestern that have me pretty excited. I've already touched on the fact about the blood brain barrier opening strategies that we have and that are in phase three clinical trials now. So, you know, certainly that, you know, if it ends up becoming FDA approved, I think we'll definitely change the field.

 

But what is on the horizon, there are two areas therapeutically that I think are very, very interesting and compelling.

 

As I mentioned, most immunotherapies don't work particularly well for glioblastoma. Part of the reason is that there's not a lot of the T cells, those are the killer cells that are in glioblastoma, there's very, very few. And so there's now a, what I consider the next generation of immunotherapeutics that are based on key findings that the pathway called STING, and that's kind of a sexy name, that's STING pathway, that can reprogram the tumor and can really pull in these killer T cells. And so when cancers don't have a lot of T cells, this reprogramming with STING can really generate those really, really nicely robust immune responses. So we're in the process of trying to move this now forward into clinical trials. We're hoping to be able to initiate clinical trials in 2026, the first quarter or so, so we're very, very close. And so this is a drug that's injected directly into the tumor and the microenvironment.

 

The second immunotherapeutic strategy I'm very excited about is what's called a BVAX. And this induces really robust immune responses, not just antibody responses, these are little proteins that attach to the cancer and then tell the immune cells, come here and kill this, but can also trigger the immune cells to sort of get turned on as well. So it's kind of a one, two punch of immunotherapies. And I think that is also probably going to be moving very rapidly into into clinical trials in 2026. So we got two very exciting things coming on board.

 

Amy Heimberger (28:09)

We're one of only five programs in the country right now that has what's called a brain spore. That's a specialized program of research excellence. Spore is how it's referred. And these are academic centers that are doing innovative and cutting edge translational research.

 

And so it's a real feather in our cap that we have enough bandwidth that we can do this. And you'd like, well, why is that important? Here's why. Drug companies want to develop drugs that have a lot of patients because they can recoup their costs. I'm not saying that they're bad people. I like working with pharma. They want to help people with cancer. But they certainly think about the common cancers when they're developing drugs. So common cancers are folks that have breast cancer, lung cancer, et cetera.

 

When you have more rare cancers, things like brain cancer, they can become less interested because it's a smaller market. And additionally, they're aware of certain challenges like blood brain barrier, what I already brought up.

 

Bri (29:22)

Mm-hmm.

 

Amy Heimberger (29:24)

And so that scares them. And then also there have been a number of clinical trials that have failed at late stage, phase three. And so all of these things kind of scare off pharma. So what has happened is, is that our scientists that are interested in working on trying to develop therapeutics or advance the care for our brain cancer patients, what they've had to do is essentially sort of take, take the reins, so to speak, and do it themselves. Now that may mean that they have to form a new company or they may have to do the what's called the investigational new drug application to the FDA themselves or maybe they have to partner with a company. But these are steps to try to get new therapeutics to patients because again although we have some drugs we don't have enough that are right for the types of cancers that we're trying to treat.

 

Bri (30:19)

Right, right. I'd love to ask both of you this question, and I'll let you all duke it out in terms of who wants to tackle it first. But given everything that you've described, and not just at MBTI, but in the brain tumor community as a whole, I'm curious how doing this work has rewired each of your minds about what's possible in the brain tumor community.

 

Laura Jaros (30:44)

Oh, that's such a good question. I'm happy to start. I think I've been with this team for five and a half years. And in that time, I have seen ideas start in the earliest stage, something that seems like it might be a little outside the box. And I have seen that go to a phase three clinical trial, not just one example of that, but multiple.

 

This team has taught me that through partnership, collaboration, shared belief, that really seemingly insurmountable barriers can be overcome. And they're not done and there's so much more to do, but I am just so inspired by what this team brings to the table every day.

 

I think about the conversations that our doctors have to have, the support that our nurses are providing, the relentless pursuit of new discoveries in research. And it's just mind boggling to me how much they bring to the table every single day. And it fills my cup and it helps me to try and make their life hopefully just a tiny bit easier, you know, so that I can keep the barriers out of their way so that they can change the future for other people.

 

Bri (32:10)

I love that.

 

Amy Heimberger (32:11)

There's a movement now that is occurring where before a lot of our clinical trials were done only after patients had failed everything else. And so there has been a rewiring of where we should actually do these clinical trials at. And so after patients have been treated with a lot of different therapies, it's really hard, especially if you're giving an immunotherapy, where you're trying to get the immune system to recognize the cancer and eradicate it. It can be very challenging after you've suppressed that immune system with all these different chemotherapies for a long period of time.

 

So increasingly, we're seeing clinical trials being done much, much earlier in diagnosis. In other words, they get the initial surgical resection and a lot of times they're going on clinical trials of agents with radiation, you know, very, very early or when they have very minimal residual disease. Increasingly were seeing more and more patients being considered for clinical trials when they're not yet progressing.

 

So certainly there's a number of new paradigms that are becoming very exciting for folks as opposed to the way we've conventionally thought about doing these clinical trials.

 

Bri (33:27)

Yeah, that's amazing. That is wonderful.

 

If listeners want to learn more about the MBTI, whether they want to get involved or make a donation or even learn about getting treatment for themselves or a loved one, a consultation, a second or third opinion, where can they find out more?

 

Laura Jaros (33:45)

Yeah, so they can just Google Malnati Brain Tumor Institute. We're going to be the first 10 hits or so that that come up.

 

Bri (33:54)

That’s a good marketing team right there. Well, thank you so much ladies for joining me and sharing about something that is near and dear to my heart now, not ever anticipating that it would be or planning for it to be. And I'm so, so grateful that I live in your all’s backyard to be able to get amazing care from you and your team.

 

Amy Heimberger (34:28)

Delighted to have come.

 

Laura Jaros (34:30)

Thank you so much for having us. It's such an honor.

 

Bri
Thank you for being part of the Rewired Minds community. Full show notes, resources, and a transcript for today’s conversation can be found at rewired-minds.com/podcast. If you or someone you know has a brain tumor story to share, I’d love to hear from you. Visit rewired-minds.com/guest to learn more about collaborating on a future episode.

 

This podcast is a one-woman labor of love. It’s a true honor to bring it to your ears and facilitate connection among the brain tumor community.

 

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