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LOS ANGELES (Feb. 14, 2002) -- Tommy Phillips of Upland (CA) was just 18 and attending junior college when his vision became blurry and his head started to ache. He didn't say much as the pain grew more severe in the spring and summer of 2000.
In July, the family was spending time at Lake Mead when Tommy's parents, Sandy and Mike, realized something serious might be going on. For one thing, although the sun was bright, Tommy's pupils didn't respond appropriately.
"He was complaining of headaches and he wasn't water-skiing or wake-boarding. He just wanted to sleep," says Sandy. A few days after they got home, they took him to the emergency room of a local hospital.
An MRI identified the cause of Tommy's symptoms: A tumor on the pineal gland -- centered on the underside of the brain not far from the pituitary gland -- was causing fluid to build up, which created intracranial pressure and led to the headaches and blurred vision. Interaction with the pituitary gland caused another problem that had eluded doctors for the better part of a year -- excessive thirst and frequent urination typical of diabetes insipidus.
Discovering at age 18 that he had a malignant brain tumor was "pretty crazy, pretty scary," Tommy says.
Sandy says the family was shocked. "It was hard to deal with but it came on very suddenly, so we didn't have a long time to dwell on it." The MRI and diagnosis came late on a Friday evening, just a few days after the family returned from the lake.
Tommy was admitted to the hospital and surgeons inserted a temporary shunt to drain the fluid while they considered a course of treatment. But during the weekend, several relatives urged Tommy's parents to contact neurosurgeon Keith Black, M.D., at Cedars-Sinai's Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute.
"My niece actually came up with the phone number," recalls Sandy. "We did call and it was almost like a miracle that Dr. Black himself answered the phone. It was 4 o'clock then and he asked if my husband could be there before 5 o'clock and my husband said, 'Sure.' And he made it. They went over the films and Dr. Black said he could help him and asked when we could have him there."
As soon as Tommy arrived at Cedars-Sinai, the Institute's medical team started performing tests and mapping his brain in preparation for surgery, according to Sandy.
"It was immediately clear that this was going to be a difficult operation. Meanwhile, Tommy was rapidly deteriorating neurologically," says Dr. Black, Institute director and director of the medical center's division of neurosurgery. He headed the surgical team that on July 24, 2000, removed the tumor, which was a dysgerminoma, a type of malignant tumor that only occasionally occurs in the brain.
"We were able to get a complete removal of the tumor, using a microscope and MRI guidance to go between the cerebellum and the cerebral hemisphere," Dr. Black says. "The tumor was positioned in the center of the brain, right behind the brain stem."
According to Sandy, "With the chemo and the radiation, for a year and a half we drove pretty much every day from where we live -- which is about an hour and fifteen minute drive -- just to go to Cedars-Sinai. That's the confidence we had in the whole team."
Even when cancer surgery is considered completely successful, as Tommy's was, a small number of cells inevitably escape. To be sure the cancer did not spread -- especially in light of the aggressive nature of dysgerminomas -- Tommy underwent months of radiation treatments and chemotherapy. Side effects affected Tommy's weight, energy and stamina. Therefore, he has yet to become as physically active as he would like to be. For now, he's taking classes in computer technology, working part-time at a sporting goods store and spending time perfecting his brush strokes in oils and acrylics.
When Tommy was first told he had a brain tumor, there seemed to be an emphasis on the worst-case prognosis. This jarring news was combined with unfamiliar surroundings and a sudden introduction to a variety of medical equipment and procedures.
By the time he arrived by transport at Cedars-Sinai, he was "scared to death," Sandy recalls. "But the whole team just started coming in, assuring him, 'We're going to take care of you. You're going to be fine,' which helped," Sandy recalls. She notes that Dr. Black and his colleagues offer words of encouragement and optimism but no promises or guarantees. Still, she says, "In my opinion, they're miracle workers."
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is one of the largest non-profit academic medical centers in the Western United States. For the fifth straight two-year period, Cedars-Sinai has been named Southern California's gold standard in health care in an independent survey. Cedars-Sinai is internationally renowned for its diagnostic and treatment capabilities and its broad spectrum of programs and services, as well as breakthrough in biomedical research and superlative medical education. Named one of the 100 "Most Wired" hospitals in health care in 2001, the Medical Center ranks among the top 10 non-university hospitals in the nation for its research activities.
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