Raymond Sawaya , M.D.
Breaking new ground is not unusual for Dr. Raymond Sawaya, who has just been named chair of two departments of neurosurgery in two premier institutions in the Texas Medical Center -- Baylor College of Medicine and The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. In fact, since he first received his medical degree from St. Joseph University in Beirut, Lebanon, and embarked for post-graduate training in the United States, this energetic surgeon has been at the forefront.
Not only did he specialize in oncology, he did so in a rapidly developing field ? surgery of the brain and nervous system.
"As a student, I was excited by the awesome organization of the central nervous system ? the prospect that you could see a patient with a specific neurological problem, and by talking to and examining that patient, you could figure out there is one specific point in that person's brain where there is a lesion that correlates exactly to that patient's symptoms. This is organization that you don't find often. I like things to be logical and fit well. This was clearly attractive to me as a specialty.
"The other end is the surgery part. A surgeon is someone who wants to fix things. You have a patient with a tumor, you go to surgery, you take the tumor out and do an MRI the next day and the tumor is gone. You get results you can show right away," he said.
At M.D. Anderson, Sawaya already wears two hats ? chair of neurosurgery dealing with all aspects of neurosurgical oncology, tumor-related problems of the brain, the spine and pituitary; and he is director of the institution's brain tumor center, involving more than 60 faculty members all involved in the study and care of patients with tumors of the central nervous system.
"I don't do all that work," he said. "I work with a large faculty that subspecializes, a model that can be applied beyond M.D. Anderson and beyond tumor surgery."
He estimates that neurosurgical oncology represents no more than one-fourth of the neurosurgical spectrum. He anticipates duplicating his model in BCM's primary teaching hospital affiliates ? Ben Taub General Hospital, Texas Children's Hospital, Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center and St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital.
"Each major area of neurosurgical research can and should be developed in a way that has depth, breadth and that will put its mark on the national scene," said Sawaya. He intends to build on existing strengths ? such as neurotraumatology at Ben Taub, where caring for trauma patients is a day-in and day-out task.
He will assume the role as interim chief of neurosurgery at St. Luke's while searching for a permanent replacement and beginning the process of building that service into one of national caliber.
"I have the advantage of being a local guy but the disadvantage of being an outsider to BCM. I hope to bridge areas of strength among our institutions," he said.
He said at M.D. Anderson, he is fortunate to be supported and to have associates who have taken on leadership roles in the department in the areas of patient care, clinical and laboratory research.
Sawaya's major interests are the care of primary and metastatic brain tumors, enhanced accessibility to and the safety of such surgery and tumors of the third ventricle, brainstem and pineal region.
He did his internship at Beeckman-Downtown Hospital and his general surgery residency at Upstate Medical Center State University of New York in Syracuse. He did a pediatric neurosurgery residency at Children's Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati and a neurosurgery residency at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He was chief resident in neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital and did a fellowship at the National Institutes of Health.
He is enthusiastic about research ongoing in his own field, particularly that on the cutting edge such as gene therapy and stem cells. He also has hopes that the development of new drugs could result in gains in care for brain tumors.