The Hauenstein
Neuroscience Center

Saint Mary's Health Care 

616-685-5050

Neuroscience Tumor Service

The Hauenstein Neuroscience Center at Saint Mary’s offers a comprehensive system of care for the diagnosis and treatment of patients with brain and spinal tumors. The Neurosurgery Service provides complex procedures that were once only offered outside the region.

Neurosurgeons and orthopedic spine surgeons work closely with medical oncologists and radiation oncologists from The Lacks Cancer Center at Saint Mary’s — a multidisciplinary approach that offers you the most effective treatment options.

State-of-the-Art Diagnosis

Neurological specialists at Saint Mary’s rely on today’s most advanced technology to detect the presence of tumors. State-of-the-art diagnostic equipment offers patients and physicians a wide range of options for making the best diagnosis, including:

• CT scans
• MRI scans
• Angiograms (arteriogram)
• Myelograms
• Nuclear medicine bone scans
• Ultrasound
• PET scans

Advanced Treatments for Tumors

For patients with tumors, a variety of treatment options may be recommended. These include:

• Surgery
• Craniotomy with traditional surgical removal of tumor
• Laser surgery with stereotactic localization
• Stereotactic radiosurgery*
• Chemotherapy
• Radiation Therapy
• Conventional radiation therapy
• Fractionated Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT)
• Stereotactic radio therapy*

*Saint Mary’s is the only hospital in West Michigan equipped to perform both stereotactic radiosurgery and stereotactic radio therapy. While radiosurgery is completed in one treatment session, radio therapy has a course of multiple treatments. In both cases:

• An MRI or CT scan creates images of the tumor’s precise location.
• Physicians use additional computers to determine the dose of radiation as well as the sizes and angles of the radiation beams.
• Narrow beams of radiation are precisely aimed at the tumor from different angles.

Surgical Expertise

Saint Mary’s tumor program took a major leap forward in 2004 with the addition of two talented neurosurgeons: Jürgen Lüders, MD, and Steve Klafeta, MD.

Dr. Lüders completed his residency in neurosurgery at the Cleveland Clinic. He is a 1998 graduate of the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago. He also trained at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, Ireland, and completed his undergraduate work at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

Dr. Klafeta is a 1998 graduate of the Loyola-Stritch School of Medicine in Chicago. He completed his residency in Neurological Surgery at Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago. He earned a B.S. from Illinois Benedictine College in Lisle, Illinois in 1994.

Learn more about Complementary Therapies for Neurosurgery.

Read a story from one our Neuroscience Tumor patients.

For more information, or to schedule a consultation, please call us at 616-685-5050, or toll free at 877-752-5432