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DAVID J. DANIELS: Our number one goal is to make sure that children have the best long-term outcomes and live their best life. And that's going to be through the best treatment approach that's unique to each individual patient.
JONATHAN D. SCHWARTZ: A lot of our second opinions over a quarter have a different pathologic diagnosis when they come to Mayo. So getting the diagnosis right in the first place allows us to make sure we're doing the right thing.
The Children's Center at Mayo Clinic is a comprehensive pediatric entity supported fully by a team of multiple specialists and subspecialists from pediatric neurosurgery, pediatric oncology.
DAVID J. DANIELS: We have 23 neurosurgeons. And everybody has their own specific niche. Doing one thing allows you to do it the best that you can. There's no tumor, really, that we can't tackle. We routinely get patients referred to us for tumors that-- are being told that are inoperable.
We have many tools and technologies that we use interoperatively to make sure that we have good outcomes and safe surgery. When we have these tumors in spots that encompass multiple regions, we can assemble experts at this type of surgery in a very expedited fashion.
JONATHAN D. SCHWARTZ: We've learned at Mayo Clinic that it's not always the right decision to rush children into surgery. There are a subset of tumors that we're able to treat with therapies that don't even require an incision.
Proton beam radiation is one of the most significant advances that we have because we're allowed to minimize the side effects and injury to healthy tissue. We've been able to decrease secondary malignancies as well as neurocognitive deficits.
There's a lot of new transformative changes to improve the quality of lives, to minimize the long-term complications, medicines that are now allowing children to be treated successfully without losing their hair, without feeling sick. Cure rates that were not previously achievable are happening. And kids who were given guarded prognosis are living long, full lives.
DAVID J. DANIELS: When we have patients referred to us, it doesn't just end there. Referring physicians know these children. They have vested interest in their patients that they're trusting us with this care.
JONATHAN D. SCHWARTZ: There's always a note, as well as a phone call back, about what's going on, the surgery that's happened, how the child has recovered, the treatment plan we would recommend, and then making sure there's a warm handoff back to the care provider when the child would return home to their care. Our phones are always available. Please reach out to us. We love talking to providers to be able to share our expertise in this particular area.