Stefan Vazharov was 36 years old and in the prime of his life when he started experiencing debilitating headaches. It led him to visit the emergency department in his native New York City.
Suddenly, life as Stefan knew it had changed forever.
Imaging showed he had a brain tumor the size of a golf ball. The next day, he received a call from neurosurgeon Constantinos George Hadjipanayis, MD. Dr. Hadjipanayis explained what they’d found and what they wanted to do about it.
“He called me the day after I entered the ICU, and we’ve been in touch ever since,” says Stefan. “He will be my surgeon forever.”
Three days after that phone call, Dr. Hadjipanayis operated on Stefan for the first time, performing a craniotomy to remove the tumor.
A few weeks after the surgery, Stefan received his pathology results — stage IV glioblastoma (GBM) — one of the most aggressive brain tumors. And while GBM is the most common type of brain tumor, it is also the hardest to treat.
Glioblastoma is a fast-growing cancer that forms tentacle-like tumors that wrap around supportive tissues of the brain. These tumors can spread quickly to other parts of the brain or spinal cord through the brain’s rich network of blood vessels. Recurrences of GBM are likely.
Defying His Prognosis
The median survival for a glioblastoma multiforme prognosis is 12 months. Only 5% of GBM patients survive five years after diagnosis.
For Stefan, it’s been seven years.
Today, he is 42 and continues to receive treatments and opinions from Dr. Hadjipanayis and his team.
Stefan's relationship with Dr. Hadjipanayis continued even after Dr. Hadjipanayis moved from New York back to Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh, where he’d done his training, in 2022.
Dr. Hadjipanayis is now director of the Center for Image-Guided Neurosurgery at the UPMC Neurological Institute and co-director of the UPMC Brain Tumor Center at the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center.
“People freak out when they have to change nail salons or barber shops,” Stefan says. “Imagine having to find another brain surgeon.”
Fortunately, Stefan didn’t have to search for a new surgical oncologist. He was able to transfer his care seamlessly to UPMC. Dr. Hadjipanayis’ expertise in managing complex brain tumors made following him to Pittsburgh an easy decision for Stefan.
After all, he’d had successful surgeries with Dr. Hadjipanayis before and knew the care and intention that his team put into everything they did.
“He is nothing short of incredible,” Stefan adds.
After Stefan’s initial brain tumor resection surgery with Dr. Hadjipanayis in late 2018, he spent all of 2019 undergoing oral chemotherapy, receiving radiation treatments, and participating in a clinical trial.
MRI scans every few months continued to actively surveil Stefan’s brain for recurrence, which happened for the first time in 2021.
Dr. Hadjipanayis had performed another successful craniotomy in New York. Stefan spent another 12 months taking oral chemotherapy treatments at bedtime five days each month.
Transferring His Care to Pittsburgh
Once Dr. Hadjipanayis transferred to Pittsburgh, Stefan visited the city and UPMC Hillman Cancer Center in late 2023. He got an understanding of the hospital system and what to expect if he had to come for treatment.
In August 2024, Stefan returned to Pittsburgh to receive his first treatment at UPMC: Gamma Knife® radiosurgery with Dr. Hadjipanayis.
Dr. Hadjipanayis had been mentored and trained by L. Dade Lunsford, MD, the neurosurgeon who brought North America’s first Gamma Knife to UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh in 1987 — establishing the university as an international leader for stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) treatment, education, and research.
Gamma Knife radiosurgery involves no incisions. Rather, it delivers a noninvasive yet highly precise radiation treatment targeting the tumor while preventing exposure to surrounding healthy brain tissue.
“The procedure was smooth and surprisingly quick,” Stefan says. “I was out and headed back home to New York within the same day!”
In March 2025, Stefan traveled to Pittsburgh once again for another craniotomy at UPMC with Dr. Hadjipanayis. Dr. Hadjipanayis performed fluorescence-guided surgery of Stefan's recurrent tumor by using a novel robotic-assisted exoscope. The surgery went well, and Stefan embraced spending time in a new city.
“This last visit, I traveled completely alone, and while that might seem overwhelming or lonely, I was just fine,” he says. “The vibes here are so different than New York, in a good way. Taking walks to explore the city helped take my mind off the upcoming surgical procedure. Meeting Dr. Hadjipanayis the day before the surgery was also crucial to keeping me calm and confident."
For Stefan, the ease of communication with Dr. Hadjipanayis and his team has been paramount to his calm demeanor and confidence in facing his glioblastoma diagnosis.
“I was just texting with Dr. Hadjipanayis yesterday,” Stefan says. “I can email or call anyone on his team and receive information right away. Just to have someone answering your questions, explaining everything, and guiding you through this journey is so important.”
It makes all the difference for Stefan’s family, too, including his mom and sister.
“This diagnosis impacts those around you,” he says. “I have to stay healthy and remind them that everything is going to be okay.”
Staying healthy means being active with walks, resistance bands, body-weight exercises, and some light yoga and stretching. Beyond exercise, it’s important for Stefan to eat a balanced diet and keep his mind healthy with therapy appointments.
He continues to have a positive outlook on life and hasn’t let his GBM diagnosis take him away from his loved ones or his work as technology editor for Hearst Magazines.
“Playing with different gadgets and writing about them keeps me distracted and busy,” Stefan says. “Thankfully, everyone at work understands my situation, so if I ever need to take a day off because the fatigue from the chemotherapy is too much, I can."
Exceeding Expectations
“My UPMC journey has met and exceeded my expectations because this experience of going through brain surgery in a new city and hospital can be stressful, but I felt comfortable the entire time and will not hesitate to do it again,” Stefan says
For Stefan, access to the trusted expertise of his surgical oncologist and the advanced Gamma Knife technology at UPMC is well worth the trip to Pittsburgh.
“I hope it’s not necessary again for a very long time, but the experience has been more than I was hoping, and I am so happy to know I have a team that really cares about me," Stefan says. "I am in the best of hands with Dr. Hadjipanayis. I will never be changing doctors.”
