For her continued presence, Kathy Lane praises God. But somewhere down the line, she also credits the care from a phalanx of physicians at IU, most notably a neurologist-oncologist who focuses on giving patients facing a brain cancer diagnosis a precious gift: quality living.
Na Tosha N. Gatson, MD, PhD, a native of Fort Wayne who trained at The Ohio State University and MD Anderson Cancer Center, came to IU in March 2024 — about the same time Kathy fell ill. Neurology drew Gatson because, “of all the organs in the human body, the brain is the one most responsible for maintaining the essence of what it means to be human.” Cancer, she said, erodes that humanity.
Gatson treats patients whose tumors originate in the brain or, like Kathy Lane, originate elsewhere in the body. It’s a field where patient survival rates are among the lowest in the cancer realm, and Gatson takes a clearheaded view.
“I understand my job is not to simply maintain their survival, but to improve their quality of living” she said. “Too often, as physicians, we make the mistake of believing we can save lives. We cannot. Instead, we must focus on ensuring that our treatments are not worse than the disease and that we can help them live as well as possible for as long as possible.”
Gatson is the director of IU’s new Center for Neuro-Oncology, leading physicians and researchers whose specialties span medical and surgical neurology and cancer care for all ages. While IU has displayed strength in basic research of neuro-oncology, its resumé in clinical trials is less robust. That’s where Gatson, having served as principal investigator on nine brain tumor trials and a co-investigator on others, and leading patent-pending brain tumor imaging research, comes in.
She partners with neurosurgical colleagues to offer unique brain tumor therapies including brachytherapy, where radioactive seeds are implanted directly within the tumor cavity to deliver high-dose radiation to the cancer cells at the time of surgery. She has partnered with the largest European brain tumor consortium to validate a method to use MRI images to more quickly determine when brain cancer therapies are no longer effective. She’s also founded and leads Neuro-oncology of Women, a subfield dedicated to increasing awareness around how brain tumors affect women at various hormonal phases across their lifespan.
Gatson has considerable experience treating patients whose cancer has infiltrated the cerebrospinal fluid — the liquid that surrounds and cushions the brain and spinal cord. This condition, leptomeningeal carcinomatosis, or LMC, was the most immediate threat to Kathy Lane, more than the tumors in her brain and lungs. Left untreated, it can kill within weeks. Even with treatment, survival is typically no more than six months.
