After a brachytherapy clinical trial, stage 4 melanoma is now cancer-free

The first time Stacy Dixon was diagnosed with melanoma, she wasn’t too concerned. A dermatologist in Oklahoma was able to successfully remove the little pinkish mole she’d noticed on her right arm in 2016 with just one surgery. Her annual checkups remained clear for the next five years.

“After that, the doctor said I didn’t need to come see him anymore,” Stacy recalls.

But in September 2022, Stacy noticed some unusual bumps on her back, upper arm and scalp. A biopsy revealed that the lump just above her left ear was melanoma. Additional scans showed suspicious spots in her lungs and the right frontal lobe of her brain. When oncologists near her home in Tulsa recommended immunotherapy followed by brain surgery, Stacy wanted a second opinion.

That’s when she turned to UT MD Anderson.

“I just didn’t feel comfortable staying local for something that important,” she says. “There are a lot of good doctors in Oklahoma. But brain surgery is a very big deal. I didn’t want to mess around.”

Here, she found the expertise she needed — and a clinical trial involving a new form of brachytherapy that could change the standard of care for patients with brain metastases.

New tile-based brachytherapy means no delay for receiving radiation

At UT MD Anderson, Stacy met first with Hussein Tawbi, M.D., Ph.D., a medical oncologist who specializes in the treatment of melanoma and co-directs the Andrew M. McDougall Brain Metastasis Clinic and Research Program. Tawbi confirmed both Stacy’s diagnosis and that the immunotherapy recommended by her local oncologist were appropriate.

But he also gave Stacy another option to consider: a new clinical trial being co-led by neurosurgeon Jeffrey Weinberg, M.D., and radiation oncologist Thomas Beckham, M.D., Ph.D.

The trial involved a tile-based form of brachytherapy, which looks like a thin wafer about the size of a postage stamp. The wafer is made of dissolvable collagen and studded with little radioactive seeds. Each seed gives off radiation for about 30 days. Neurosurgeons and radiation oncologists work together to line the surfaces of the cavities left behind after cancerous growths are removed to deliver radiation directly to the tumor beds.

“Since they start delivering radiation immediately, you don’t have to wait to heal from surgery before you take the next step in your treatment plan,” Stacy says. “You also don’t have to have your whole brain irradiated just to treat one or two small areas.”

Trust, confidence and passion led to clinical trial participation

Tawbi, Weinberg and Beckham all thought Stacy was a good candidate for the clinical trial. So, she took their advice and had the craniotomy at UT MD Anderson on Nov. 18, 2022.

“I trusted my care team,” Stacy says of her decision to join the trial. “They were confident and worked really well together. The level of care I got from them was amazing. Plus, I could see their passion for what they do. I love that UT MD Anderson is always pushing the limits, looking for the next great thing. I feel super fortunate to have had the opportunity to participate.”

“We’ve already shown brachytherapy’s effectiveness in other cancers,” adds Weinberg, who will present the clinical trial’s findings at the 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting on May 30. “But this is the first time anyone has used it this successfully in the brain.”

Weinberg notes that the trial showed these implants can control brain metastases better than the standard of care.

“This new technique is not just ‘as good as,’ but superior to the other way,” he says. “Still, we don’t make discoveries like these without people who are willing to be on clinical trials. It takes a lot of courage to try something new. So, we are incredibly grateful to Stacy and all the other patients who participated.”

‘I would do it all over again’

Stacy ended up needing a second brain surgery in February 2025 to make sure some shadows on her scans were dead tissue rather than another recurrence. But she’s shown no evidence of disease since her first brain surgery in 2022, and is back to living a full, normal life.

“What’s another bad haircut if it means I don’t have to worry?” Stacy says. “I really hit the jackpot with my care team at UT MD Anderson. I have zero issues now. And, I got to watch my daughter graduate from high school last year. So, I would do it all over again.”

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