Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center is proud to offer our patients stereotactic radiosurgery.
Stereotactic (or stereotaxic) radiosurgery (SRS) uses a large dose of radiation to destroy tumor tissue in the brain. The procedure does not involve actual surgery. The patient’s head is placed in a special frame, which is attached to the patient’s skull. The frame is used to aim high-dose radiation beams directly at the tumor inside the patient’s head. The dose and area receiving the radiation are coordinated very precisely. Most nearby tissues are not damaged by this procedure.
SRS is a team effort. The highly complex procedure, involving the concentrated effort of oncologists, neurologists and medical physicists , is completed in one day. Since the beam is so precise, the radiation oncologist may be able to spare more normal tissue than with conventional external beam therapy. This additional precision is achieved through rigid immobilization, such as with a head frame as is used in the treatment of brain tumors. In addition to treating tumors, it can also be used to treat malformations in the brain’s blood vessels and certain noncancerous (benign) brain tumors.
BrainLAB Novalis is an advanced treatment device used for SRS. With Novalis, the treatment beams are shaped to match the exact contour of the tumor or lesion. During treatment, Novalis moves around the patient’s body so that the radiation penetrates the entire tumor or lesion from different angles. While the tumor or lesion receives the full dose of radiation, the surrounding healthy tissue only receives a small percentage of the radiation, which reduces potential damage to delicate structures such as the brainstem or spinal cord.
Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center is committed to offering the latest treatment planning technology and equipment. This means having equipment that allows a doctor to deliver the optimal dose of radiation treatment precisely to the tumor and the ability to limit the radiation dose to other critical structures.