Richard Leblanc, MD

Dr. Richard Leblanc, a neurosurgeon at the MNI/H, serves at the McGill University Health Centre as director of the Brain Tumour Program and the Brain Tumour Clinic, and as co-director of the Skull Base Tumour Program and Clinic. The Brain Tumour Program groups more than 20 physicians and other health professionals involved in the treatment and support of brain tumour patients, and in teaching and research. Dr. Leblanc was given the mandate to create an interdisciplinary Skull Base Tumour Program and Clinic with the MUHC's Departments of Otolaryngology and of Endocrinology. This program focuses on the integration of new technologies to investigate and treat patients with anterior and posterior skull base lesions. The program has been instrumental in establishing the usefulness of image-guidance and endoscopic approaches in the treatment of patients harboring these lesions. For the last decade, Dr. Leblanc's main interest has been investigating brain tumour treatments. He participated in the first molecular characterization of the common forms of cerebral tumours by magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and in the use of magnetic resonance spectroscopy in guiding treatment of patients with gliomas. He was the local principal investigator in studies evaluating putative treatments for cerebral gliomas, including the first trial of gene therapy for patients with recurrent glioblastoma multiforme. Most notably, Dr. Leblanc was involved in one of the first trials to evaluate the effects of Temozolomide in combination with radiotherapy, a treatment that has become standard. Dr. Leblanc is also interested in brain tumour genetics. He has brought attention to the familial incidence of cerebral gliomas, and has described a novel association of skin and brain hamartomas. He also described a new association of benign brain tumours with familial adenomatous polyposis coli. Dr. Leblanc was the first to demonstrate that functional imaging is reliable in the assessment of patients with structural brain lesions in the motor strip and in language areas.