One Doctor's Pituitary Tumor and Drug Research

UVA Health System neurosurgeon Edward H. Oldfield, MD, offers patients unique approaches to pituitary-tumor surgery and a patented drug-delivery system that he helped invent.

Oldfield joined the UVA Health System's Department of Neurosurgery after 23 years as Chief of the Surgical Neurology Branch at the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, where he performed and supervised both clinical and research efforts.

"My work attempts to connect the lab with the clinic," he says.

UVA's pituitary clinic performs 200 to 250 pituitary tumors resections/removals annually and draws patients from around the world.

Oldfield is working to develop new surgical approaches and investigate the use of existing surgery techniques for a range of pituitary tumors. He also hopes that his research on the biology of pituitary tumors will guide him in creating new treatment approaches.

Oldfield also works with UVA's Lars Leksell Gamma Knife Center on improving the combination of pituitary-tumor surgery and Gamma Knife radiosurgery for treating pituitary tumors.

Along with research into the biology of brain tumors, Oldfield is also researching a novel drug-delivery system he helped invent and patent. The system delivers drugs directly to brain tumors and brain tissue through a catheter. This allows delivery of a higher concentration of drugs to the treatment area and avoids damage to other organs.