Cancerous tumors that develop in the brain can be hard to reach with conventional surgery. Their position near critical brain structures often make treatment challenging. But an innovative procedure called laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) is bringing hope to patients diagnosed with brain tumors, like Lindsay French.
Early in 2019, French was “living the good life” after a move to Burleson from Keller with her husband and children. She was enjoying her work with a global company that allowed her to travel and manage an operations team. Then she started to feel fatigued and experience severe itching. A trip to the dermatologist turned into a visit with a primary care provider. And then came the news.
The 44-year-old wife and mom learned she was in full liver failure as the result of a rare form of bile duct cancer. Even more grim, she was given six months to live. While French sought treatment in Houston, friends in the DFW area offered up oncologist recommendations for a second opinion. One oncologist in particular seemed promising to French, so she made an appointment with the doctor and ended up with a very different perspective on her health.
This time, the diagnosis was metastatic breast cancer. Although French wasn’t in the clear, her outcome was more encouraging. “Instead of a 17 percent chance to live, it actually went up to about a 65 percent chance to live,” she says. “Fast forward to that fall, I was in remission and thought that was the end of my story.”
A Path Forward
It was in the spring of 2024 when French began having terrible headaches. She soon learned that her metastatic breast cancer had also spread to her brain. “I had three tumors across my brain and I thought wow, here we go again,” French admits.
Radiation was done with good results. One tumor was eliminated and the other two showed no additional signs of growth — until a follow-up scan in December 2024 revealed the two remaining tumors were active again.
“Catching brain tumors early can make a significant difference in a patient’s outcome,” Harvey explains. “Early-stage tumors are usually easier to treat effectively. For Lindsay, the only real option at that time was to take the tumors out.”
Fortunately for French, she had access to a skilled neurosurgeon who could address her cancer with a novel procedure within a facility recognized as a state and regional leader in the treatment of brain tumors. Harvey recommended French undergo the minimally invasive laser interstitial thermal therapy, a procedure that uses a laser to destroy cancer cells or unhealthy brain tissue.
“No one I knew had heard of the procedure so everyone was asking for information on it, especially my parents and my husband,” French says. “We all wanted to understand it more. Dr. Harvey explained everything there was to explain to me and answered every question.”
Improving Tumor Care for Lindsay and Others
Laser interstitial thermal therapy uses a laser that produces heat which is focused in a very narrow beam for a treatment tool that is both powerful and precise. LITT can be an especially effective treatment option for recurrent brain tumors and tumors that form deep within the brain that may otherwise be inoperable.
Also called laser ablation or thermal ablation, LITT provides the benefits of traditional brain surgery with less risk and a shorter recovery time. “It typically requires an incision of about a half inch long in the scalp and takes a few minutes for the laser portion of the procedure,” Harvey says.
During French’s procedure, an MRI-guided laser was carefully directed to the impacted areas of her brain. Heat from the laser damaged the cancerous brain cells while the MRI monitored temperatures within the parts of the brain being treated to help ensure the safety of the procedure and protection of healthy brain tissue.
After several days of recovery in the hospital, French was able to go home. She was back to walking without assistance and easing back into some of her normal activities just four days post-surgery. She is still a little wobbly when walking but continues to get better every day.
“Because of the location of her tumors in the cerebellum, where a person’s balance controls are, it may take six months to three years for everything to reset and reposition,” Harvey adds.
When asked what National Brain Tumor Awareness Month in May signifies to her, French was quick to acknowledge: “I want other people to know that there are options like the surgery that I had to help them, where they don’t have to go in and do a full brain surgery. My mission now is to help other people understand that the treatment exists and to see that there is hope.”
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