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Originally published January 14, 2026
Last updated January 14, 2026
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By 2013, Niki Kozak, a radio host and promotions director, had been living with melanoma for six years. She was first diagnosed with early-stage melanoma in 2007. The disease had brought its share of challenges to the avid outdoorswoman, but otherwise, she was thriving.
“I had a supportive husband, a young adult son launching his own successful life, an adorable little dog and a fat orange cat, a job that paid me to talk and give stuff away, and weekends on my bike with friends,” Niki says. “I was in the best shape of my life, both mentally and physically.”
Then one morning in April 2013, while hosting her morning country music show, Niki suffered a seizure on-air. She was taken to her local emergency room, which delivered a deeply troubling update: her melanoma had metastasized to her brain, lungs and soft tissues, making her a stage IV cancer patient.
Niki had lost both parents to cancer, so she was determined to get the best care possible. Niki’s husband, Frank, had been deeply impressed by the exceptional level of coordinated care he witnessed at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of Keck Medicine of USC, when his own mother was undergoing treatment there.
For Niki and Frank, the decision on where to get treatment was easy. Niki reached out to the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. She says knowing that it is a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center also contributed to their choice.
Their faith was well-founded. “My care team was built, coordinated and in contact with us before we even knew what treatments I was going to need,” Niki says. Her treatment regimen soon began and would take place at both Keck Hospital of USC and USC Norris Cancer Hospital.
Niki’s treatment included two craniotomies performed by neurosurgeon Charles Liu, MD, PhD.
About a month after Niki’s first surgery, she began treatment with the USC Stereotactic Radiosurgery Center. This center, which specializes in innovative radiation oncology treatments for brain and spine tumors, is a multidisciplinary partnership of two Keck Medicine entities: USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and the USC Brain Tumor Center.
Niki began undergoing stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), which would prove foundational to her treatment. It is an exceptionally precise, targeted radiation procedure. In Niki’s case, a device called the Gamma Knife was used to deliver the SRS that would eradicate her brain tumors.
Radiation oncologist Eric Chang, MD, ultimately performed 10 rounds of stereotactic radiosurgery on Niki to eliminate a total of 37 tumors. Gabriel Zada, MD, co-director of the USC Brain Tumor Center, also oversaw Niki’s treatment.
Niki praises Dr. Chang as a pioneer for pushing her SRS treatment beyond what would be customary (to treat just a few tumors). By having more of her tumors treated with SRS, Niki was able to avoid undergoing whole-brain radiation therapy, which can pose some long-term health risks.
“If not for Dr. Chang’s desire to change the paradigm of limiting SRS’s use to ‘four lesions or fewer,’ I would be facing some lifelong consequences that often result from whole-brain radiation,” Niki says. “He pushed boundaries that are now considered new standards.”
For Niki, the SRS process involved an early morning pre-check, followed by anesthesia. Once Niki was unconscious, she would receive intracranial lidocaine shots and be fitted with a head frame. From there, an MRI would map the number and location of tumors to be targeted.
Once in the device, her head frame would be locked into place to restrict her movement. The machine then applied small beams of gamma rays to damage the DNA of the targeted cells, ultimately causing them to shrink and die.
Niki would spend anywhere from 20 minutes to three and a half hours in the machine. Fortunately, she could listen to music while undergoing treatment. The 1960s and 1970s songs she preferred kept her mood up and helped her keep track of how much treatment time remained during each session.
Niki praises her entire care team for making her experience as pleasant as possible. “A great nurse, good music and an anesthesiologist to relieve the pain of the frame placement certainly helped,” she says. “Also, every provider I came across was a great listener. It takes a special person to show proper empathy and also make you laugh, even when you have a searing headache and think you might vomit. I feel like I made some lifelong friends there.”
She adds: “I’ve spoken with many patients who have experienced radiosurgery at other institutions around the U.S., and not all seem to follow the same ‘patient comfort’ process.”
This year, Keck Medicine will also start offering SRS treatment via an even more advanced device. It is installing the newest version of the Gamma Knife device, which offers both frame-based and frameless SRS treatment, Dr. Zada says.
Niki’s care from Keck Medicine would also go on to include 22 months of immunotherapy using two different types of immunotherapy drugs, a lung lobectomy, subcutaneous lesion removal from dermatologist David Peng, MD, rheumatologic treatment for some immunotherapy side effects, and months of targeted drug therapy.
Today, Niki is back to enjoying an active lifestyle, having completed a century bicycle ride, run a marathon and hiked the Italian Alps and the Canadian Rockies.
Since there is no cure for melanoma, she continues annual follow-ups with medical oncologists, brain MRIs with radiation oncologists and dermatology checkups every five or six months.
When meeting people facing their own cancer journeys, Niki makes sure to let them know that having access to a comprehensive cancer center like USC Norris can make a huge difference — not only for the specialized care it provides, but also for the integrated approach that takes extra travel and recordkeeping off a patient’s shoulders.
“Being treated for cancer and its side effects can feel like a full-time job,” she says. “Hauling yourself from location to location while dragging along records, imaging and clinic notes to keep your ring of doctors all in the loop is exhausting. This is where my recommendation for comprehensive cancer centers comes into play. Having a team that can communicate and offer specialized care for all the varied treatments you will need is huge. Having a team ‘under one roof’ can save you so much stress and headache.”
She also advises patients to rely on their community, whether that includes their medical team, friends or family.
“If you don’t have support friends or family, ask your doctors about the nurse coordinators who are available,” she says. “You can also ask about patient advocates and support groups that the hospital offers or is aligned with. With cancer comes anxiety, even for the calmest individual. Find your people — the ones who hear you, who ‘get’ you and who make you feel like an appointment is something to look forward to.”
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