(July 16) - The diagnosis could not have been more devastating. At 23, medical student PJ Lukac learned he had a rare, often fast-growing brain tumor.

But it's what Lukac did after the diagnosis that has made headlines in the Chicago Tribune.

According to the newspaper, Lukac, a second-year medical student at Columbia University, sought out Dr. Markus Bredel, the director of the Northwestern Brain Tumor Institute's research program, and said he wanted to study his cancer -- and try to save his own life.

Bredel hired the student as an assistant researcher.

This week, the newspaper reported, Bredel's lab announced it had identified genes that are key to forming the type of tumor Lukac has, glioblastoma. The research suggests that certain genes in the tumor could determine how it will grow, which in turn could help doctors better treat the cancer. It is the same type of brain cancer Sen. Edward Kennedy has.

"The last two or three months, being here and doing what I've been able to do, it just feels great," Lukac, now 24, told the Tribune. "It sounds really weird, but it has been two or three of the best months of my life."

Said Bedel: "Having PJ around us as a co-worker and friend is something that motivates our whole team in trying to be as quick and good as possible in finding that needle in a haystack, or needles in the haystack, to make progress in the treatment ... from which, hopefully, PJ will be able to benefit."

Read the full story from the Chicago Tribune.