Mobile clinic offering free brain scans for Las Vegas locals

A mobile clinic parked in Las Vegas this week is offering locals a chance to undergo free brain scans and help researchers better understand the brain.

The Brain Tumor Foundation’s mobile clinic, parked in an empty lot aside the Peppermill Restaurant &Fireside Lounge at 2985 Las Vegas Blvd. South, is offering free abbreviated MRI brain scans through Saturday.

The goal is to aid in early detection of brain tumors by sending the mobile clinic to cities across the country, said Dr. Philip E. Stieg, foundation president and chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York.

Nearly 1 million people in the United States are living with brain tumors that haven’t been detected, the foundation reported.

“Many patients are aware of the symptoms but get tested too late,” Stieg said.

The scans image sections of the brain in about eight to 12 minutes but don’t provide images as detailed as those offered by longer MRIs, foundation director Zeesy Schnur said.

The pictures are sent to the clinic visitor’s primary care physician and are also stored by researchers at Columbia University, where data from the MRIs can be cross-referenced with demographic and personal history information.

The group of researchers at Columbia’s medical center and Mailman School of Public Health are investigating potential environmental and genetic causes of brain cancer.

The data are also being shared with groups that study other brain health issues like Alzheimer’s disease.

Joe Kasprzyk, 67, saw the clinic’s services advertised on the news and scheduled his first-ever brain MRI.

“I’m not really expecting anything,” he said. “I’d just like to have that peace of mind.”

Anthony Scaramucci, co-managing partner of alternative investment firm SkyBridge Capital, still refers to the time his father slipped off a boat and onto a dock as “very lucky.”

When he tumbled onto the dock about 14 years ago, Scaramucci’s then-66-year-old father suffered a concussion and was transported to a hospital, where doctors performed an MRI.

That’s when they found a brain tumor.

“My family lucked out because my dad fell, but other families, this is how they’re going to luck out,” Scaramucci said, sitting inside the mobile clinic.

Scaramucci, now a member of the Brain Tumor Foundation’s board of directors, is sponsoring the clinic’s presence in Las Vegas, which began Sunday.

The clinic’s presence in town coincides with the SkyBridge Alternatives Conference, a forum on geopolitics, global economics and investment that Scaramucci founded.

Individuals must have primary care physicians to receive a scan at the clinic, and since visits aren’t diagnostic, anyone already diagnosed with a brain tumor wouldn’t benefit from the service, Schnur said.

Stieg suggested people who haven’t been diagnosed with brain tumors but who’ve suffered unexplained episodes of vision loss, periods of hearing loss or changes in their ability to move their arms and legs receive scans.

Kasprzyk wanted to seize the opportunity. That his scan could help scientists develop a more in-depth understanding of how the brain works is a bonus, he said.

“The more knowledge there is out there, the better,” he said.

Contact Pashtana Usufzy at pusufzy@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4563. Find @pashtana_u on Twitter.