It's one of the most delicate places to operate and sometimes brain surgery to remove tumors is too risky. Now, doctors in Cincinnati have created a better roadmap of the brain to guide them through surgery.
Newlyweds Stacy and Jeff Buzzard quickly learned the meaning of in sickness and in health.
"It was just a few days after we were married that it got to the point that I couldn't do anything. I remember saying to my husband that I know I'm dying," said Stacy Buzzard, brain tumor patient.
A fist-sized brain tumor covered a quarter of her brain.
"I remember screaming at home and telling him that it felt like someone was stabbing my eyes out," she said.
Doctors designed a computer program for Stacy using 4-D imaging technologies - MRI, functional MRI, diffusion tensor imaging and CT angiography. Surgeons mapped out a 3-D image of the tumor and brain.
The tumor went from inoperable to treatable because doctors could see vital vessels and maneuver around them.
"The size of the tumor was so large that I needed to know where the arteries and veins were located," Dr. John Tew, University of Cincinnati. "This allows you to do basically sort of a virtual surgery before actually going in and doing the surgery on the patient."
Doctors were able to remove 90 percent of Stacy's tumor. She was talking and walking the same night.
"It was a blessing, there's no question," she said. "I saw it as a blessing."
She had radiation and chemo to treat the remaining tumor. After the last treatment, Stacy is hopeful.
"I'm really excited about the future and I feel really optimistic and positive," said Stacy.
Stacy is on maintenance chemo five days a month and her doctor says she has responded exceptionally well to treatment.
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