Keith L. Black, MD, is among an elite group of neurosurgeons in the world who perform hundreds of brain tumor operations each year. The precision of his surgical skill enables him to remove tumors that often have been considered inoperable.  Dr. Black has a unique ability to combine cutting-edge research and an extremely busy surgical practice. Since 1987, he has performed more than 6,000 operations for resection of brain tumors.

Dr. Black came to Cedars-Sinai in 1997 as director of the Division of Neurosurgery. He founded the Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute at Cedars-Sinai that year, established Neurosurgery as its own department in 2006, and opened the Cochran Brain Tumor Center in 2007.

He has assembled a surgical, research and clinical team focusing on tumors and other disorders of the brain. About three dozen full-time researchers now work with clinicians to translate scientific findings into new approaches to patient care. He is especially well known for devising ways to increase delivery of chemotherapy to brain tumors and for developing an experimental “vaccine” to boost immune response.

Dr. Black was previously on the faculty of the University of California, Los Angeles, for 10 years. A professor of surgery and neurology, he held the Department of Surgery’s Ruth and Raymond Stotter Chair and served as head of both Neurosurgical Oncology and the Comprehensive Brain Tumor Program at UCLA Medical Center.

He has published more than 260 peer reviewed scientific papers and authored the book Brain Surgeon: A Doctor’s Inspiring Encounters with Mortality and Miracles in March 2009. His work has been the subject of numerous broadcast and print media stories, including a 1996 PBS program, The New Explorers, a Time magazine cover and feature article in 1997 on heroes in medicine, and a segment on CBS Sunday Morning in 1999. He often is called upon by CNN and other national media to discuss news events related to brain tumors or injuries.

Spine, Spinal Disorders, Neurology and Neuroimaginga