SUMMARY
Dr. Clarke studies spinal column and spinal cord tumors from a clinical and translational research perspective, focusing on novel surgical techniques and optimizing patient outcomes. This includes multicenter and multidisciplinary prospective and collaborative projects on rare primary tumors of the spine.
Focus areas
- Primary spinal column tumors. Dr. Clarke contributes to a multi-institutional study of rare primary spinal column tumors, their treatment, outcome and effect on patient quality of life. Specifically, this work focuses on optimizing multimodality treatment delivered in a collaborative environment.
- Degenerative spine disease. An additional area of focus is the delivery of high-quality, timely and cost-effective care for degenerative spine disease through the use of quality-of-life metrics.
- Tumor treatment. Dr. Clarke also studies intradural and spinal cord tumor treatment, with multi-institutional collaboration.
Significance to patient care
Dr. Clarke's hope is that through her research, better tools will be developed to counsel and treat patients suffering from spinal cord or spinal column tumors. She aims to understand the causes, study improvements to treatment, and determine the best method of treatment delivery for these rare and unusual tumors.