Gamma Knife: A Treatment Worth Traveling For
from BestHealth, September 2004
Malignant brain tumors, whether primary tumors or ones that have spread from another site, are among the most challenging cancers to treat.
Since 1999, Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center has offered patients a treatment option not available anywhere else in North Carolina—Gamma Knife stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS). Gamma Knife SRS is a non-surgical, non-invasive method of treating malignant and benign brain tumors as well as a number of other brain conditions including trigeminal neuralgia and vascular malformations.
The unit aims 201 narrow “pencil beams” of radioactive cobalt-60 at the abnormal tissue—focusing precisely on the target tissue and minimizing radiation effects to surrounding healthy brain tissues. The treatment plan is carefully designed by a team of neurosurgeons, radiation oncologists and radiation physicists who use a high-powered computer to conform the radiation dose to the size and shape of the lesion.
This technology was welcome news to Steve Larossa, who traveled from Chesapeake, Virginia, to Winston-Salem for treatment of malignant brain lesions.
Larossa was diagnosed with lung cancer in March 2003 and his right lung was removed. Three months later doctors detected metastatic lesions in his brain. He was treated with whole brain radiation which shrank the lesions but the side-effects were significant, including seizures and fatigue.
Despite the whole brain radiation, more lesions were detected in late 2003. Larossa researched his options and found that Wake Forest Baptist has a department dedicated to treating the brain. He came to the Gamma Knife Center and was treated in January. Three months later the lesions were controlled.
In most cases, Gamma Knife SRS immediately stops the growth of tumors, which shrink or disappear over time. While results are not as immediate as with traditional surgery, long-term prognosis is often comparable or better.
“Gamma Knife stereotactic radiosurgery is playing an increasing role as a non-surgical, non-invasive method of treating both benign and malignant brain tumors. It is highly effective,” said Edward Shaw, M.D., chairman of Radiation Oncology at Wake Forest Baptist and co-director of the Gamma Knife SRS Program. “We are a Brain Tumor Center of Excellence, with a broad array of clinical and research efforts underway. Gamma Knife is an important component of our Program.”
The Gamma Knife team is among the most experienced in the country. More than 1,000 patients have been treated with Gamma Knife since the Center opened.
“That was very reassuring to me,” said Larossa. “In addition to being extremely competent, these are the friendliest people I’ve ever met. They are kind, attentive and genuinely concerned about my condition.”
Gamma Knife in Brief
Wake Forest Baptist owns the only Gamma Knife unit in North Carolina. The Gamma Knife treatment team, one of the most experienced in the country, has treated more than 1,000 patients since the Gamma Knife Center opened.
Gamma Knife is used to treat:
• Malignant brain tumors including high-grade and selected low-grade astrocytomas
• Brain metastases
• Benign brain tumors including acoustic neuromas, meningiomas and pituitary tumors
• Arteriovenous malformations
• Functional disorders including trigeminal neuralgia and essential tremor