Radiosurgery - How it Works

Radiation has been used to treat cancer and other abnormalities with good results for many years. Today, it is prescribed in one form or another for half of all cancer patients.

Radiation is pure energy delivered in beams. It works by destroying the DNA of cancer cells so they can no longer reproduce. The physician prescribes the amount, or dose, of radiation and the method of administering it in much the same way as medications are prescribed.

Stereotactic radiosurgery is the most precise method of external beam radiation. It has been used for some time by neurosurgeons to treat vascular abnormalities and tumors in the brain, both benign and malignant. Recent advances in imaging, patient positioning and targeting have made radiosurgery appropriate for treatment of cancers in other parts of the body as well.

Diagnostic images taken before treatment – including computed tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) – help determine where to aim the radiation. The beams are shaped to match the contours and are delivered from many different angles around the body, all converging precisely at the planned target location.

Radiosurgery’s ultra-high precision destroys tumors with high doses of radiation, while sparing the surrounding healthy tissue. In this way, radiosurgery provides a non-invasive alternative to surgery and allows treatment of some otherwise inoperable tumors.

With some methods of radiation, it may take weeks of treatment sessions to deliver the full-prescribed dose.

With radiosurgery, however, a single treatment is often sufficient. Radiosurgery is most often administered as an outpatient procedure.