Radiosurgery

Radiosurgery is a single high dose of focused radiation delivered to a tumor or vascular malformation. Radiosurgery is frequently used to treat brain, pituitary and skull base tumors that are not amenable to complete surgical removal. Radiosurgery can be delivered by a linear accelerator (Trilogy or Novalis) or by the Gamma Knife or Cyberknife; the effectiveness of these different forms of radiosurgery in terms of stopping tumor growth appears to be relatively equal. For tumors that are less than 2 or 3 mm away from the optic nerves or optic chiasm, fractionated (multiple lower dose radiation treatments) stereotactic radiation (SRT) is typically indicated to avoid damage to the optic nerves.