Bay Area terminal cancer patient getting more precious time with family from specialized brain mapping surgery

A Bay Area cancer patient is making more memories and living longer than his initial diagnosis thanks to a groundbreaking treatment for his particularly aggressive form of brain cancer.

Bay Area resident Joe Quirarte and his wife Ashleigh recently sat around their kitchen table and flipped through family photo albums. Each page brought back so many good memories: of the couple falling in love, getting married, becoming parents to 4-year-old David and 2-year-old Stella. The albums show the family living in Germany, where Quirarte served in the U.S. Army, traveling the world, and even going to 49ers games.

"Joe is the most wonderful dad and husband," remarked Ashleigh Quirarte. "It's actually one of the things that drew me to him first was knowing how great of a dad he would be."

Quirarte knows exactly what he wants to do on this upcoming Father's Day.

"I didn't know a year and a half ago if I'd even be around to see Father's Day this year. And so, I plan on just hugging my kids as tightly as possible," he explained.

After retiring from two decades of military service, a year and a half ago Quirarte suffered a seizure. 

"I woke up in a hospital bed and there was a doctor telling my wife and I to please take a seat and that's never a good thing and he told me I had terminal brain cancer and gave me a year and half to live," he said.

Doctors diagnosed the 38-year-old with glioblastoma multiforme, the most aggressive and deadliest form of brain cancer that weaves tenacles of tumors throughout the brain.

"There was a lot of shock, and then a very strong resolve to get the most time we could for Joe and to make that time as meaningful as possible," said Ashleigh.

A chance at that time came from Dr. Mitch Berger, a neurosurgeon at the University of California, San Francisco. Berger pioneered a surgical technique that uses brain mapping in the operating room.

"The way I look at it is that we're fighting fiercely for every patient's life," Berger said.

The approach takes out as much tumor as possible, while preserving important brain functions. The brain mapping involves putting the patient to sleep for the initial opening of the skull. The patient is then awakened as the neurosurgeon applies a mild, targeted electrical current to specific points on the brain, and has the patient perform a task, such as counting, naming objects, or even playing a musical instrument. 

If the tiny pulse causes the patient to stumble, the neurosurgeon knows to avoid those areas while maximizing tumor removal.

A recent international study published in The Lancet Oncology involving 16 institutions reveals even with slow-growing gliomas, patients undergoing the treatment can live for decades after their initial diagnosis. 

In Quirarte's case, his prognosis went from 1 1/2 years to three, perhaps five more years of good quality life.

 "Even if we can provide them with a short-increased interval of life, it's worth everything to do that," Berger said. "To give them the time that they deserve to be with their families and to live as long as possible with a good quality of life."

Quirarte hopes he has enough time to set a good example to both his children, by treating their mother with great respect and love.

"I'm just grateful to still be around," Quirarte mused, saying he wants to hug, kiss, and goof around with his kids on Father's Day.

"I think about what I want our kids to remember and know about Joe," said a tearful Ashley Quirarte. "The very first thing that comes to mind is how much he loves them. And how wonderful of a dad he is. And I am just so thankful that we are going to spend this Father's Day as a family, together."