What is radiosurgery?
Radiosurgery is a radiation therapy procedure that uses a special system to precisely deliver a large radiation dose to a tumor over one to five treatment sessions. The goal of this non-invasive procedure is to destroy the target without surgery or harming nearby healthy tissue. It is used to treat various types of cancer such as tumors in the brain, spine, lung, liver and prostate as well as some other non-cancerous disorders. It is also called radiation surgery, stereotactic external-beam radiation, stereotactic radiation therapy, stereotactic radiosurgery, and stereotaxic radiosurgery.
Radiosurgery replaces the surgeon’s scalpel with a single, high dose of radiation. Like the surgeon’s scalpel, the radiation eradicates the diseased area with a safe and effective approach. The patient wears a lightweight head frame that attaches to a helmet, through which radiation is precisely focused at a single target. Only the tissue being treated receives a very strong dose of radiation while the surrounding tissue remains unharmed. The painless, bloodless procedure is usually performed under local anesthesia with mild sedation. Although the entire procedure takes several hours, the actual treatment takes just 15 minutes to one hour, depending on the size of the lesion being treated. If there are multiple tumors or if the tumor spreads to another area, radiosurgery can be repeated. There is no risk of surgical complications like infection, hemorrhage or leakage of cerebral spinal fluid.
Related Questions
- Do neurosurgeons performing gamma stereotactic radiosurgery (gamma knife) qualify as authorized users (AUs) with regard to the 64E-5.637(6), FAC, requirement for an AU to be physically present throughout the entire patient treatment involving the unit?
- How is CyberKnife® different from other robotic radiosurgery systems, like Gamma Knife or TomoTherapy?
- Can stereotactic radiosurgery alone be used for the treatment of brain metastases?
