Dr. Anthony Martino is an associate professor in the department of neurosurgery at the University of South Alabama and an affiliate physician at the Mitchell Cancer Institute. Prior to joining the faculty at USA, he served on the medical faculty at the University of California at San Francisco, Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, and Dartmouth Medical School in Hanover, N.H.

Born in Italy, Dr. Martino earned his medical degree from Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome. He completed his internship at Columbus Hospital in Chicago and his residency at the State Hospital of New York in Syracuse, N.Y. Following a fellowship in neurosurgery at the University of California in San Francisco, Dr. Martino went on to serve on faculty at several well known medical schools. He entered private practice in 1995 as the attending neurosurgeon at the Harbin Clinic in Rome, Ga., where he spent the next nine years. The opportunity to return to academics and teaching brought him to the University of South Alabama. “I missed the interaction with students and physicians in an academic environment,” he said. “They challenge you to be the best.”

As a student, Dr. Martino had an instant passion for neuroscience. “I loved the challenge of diagnoses in neurological disorders. Coupling that with surgery made it a perfect match for me.” Mentored by an advisor who was a pediatric neurosurgeon, Dr. Martino considers finding tumors in children to be the most rewarding, but he enjoys all aspects of his work.

Along with developing the department of pediatric neurosurgery at USA, Dr. Martino works closely with the oncologists and physicists here at the Mitchell Cancer Institute to offer patients a new non-invasive alternative to conventional surgery using a state-of-the-art radiosurgery system called the Cyberknife. The Cyberknife delivers high doses of radiation with extreme accuracy to treat both tumors and other pathologies of the nervous system. It offers new hope to patients who have inoperable or surgically complex lesions of the brain or spine. “With Cyberknife, we are able to perform bloodless surgery allowing patients to immediately return to their normal activities. There is no incision, pain or hospitalization associated with the procedure.”