New research from Johns Hopkins University reveals that patients who undergo repeated surgeries to remove glioblastomas — the most aggressive and deadliest type of brain tumors — may survive longer than those who have just one operation. Glioblastoma, the form of brain cancer that killed Sen. Edward Kennedy, inevitably returns after tumor-removal surgery, chemotherapy and/or radiation. The median survival time after diagnosis is about 14 months. Experts report that with recurrence a near certainty, the value of performing second, third or even fourth operations has been questioned, especially given the dangers of brain surgery, which include risk of neurological injury or death.

“We are reluctant to operate on patients with brain cancer multiple times, as we are afraid to incur new neurological deficits or poor wound healing, and many times we are pessimistic about the survival chances of these patients,” says Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa, MD, FAANS, a professor of neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and leader of the study that appears in the American Association of Neurological Surgeons’ (AANS’) Journal of Neurosurgery. “But this study tells us that the more we operate, the longer they may survive. We should not give up on these patients.”

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