Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center

The first surgery Eric Grogan, M.D., and Matthew McGirt, M.D., performed together lasted 18 hours. Grogan, a thoracic surgeon, carefully cut away the baseball-sized lung tumor that had wrapped around patient Ronald Denton’s aorta, subclavian artery and esophagus and removed the upper lobe of the lung. After they worked together to remove three vertebrae that [...]

For cancer patients, quality of life is as important a consideration as quantity of life. Now, for patients whose cancers have spread (metastasized) to the spine, a new “minimally invasive” approach to surgery can make it a more reasonable option than the previously required invasive procedure to ease sometimes excruciating and debilitating back pain. “For [...]