We offer state-of-the-art stereotactic radiosurgery to our cancer patients. Despite the name, SRS is not a surgical procedure. SRS is a commonly used technique for treating brain tumors and vascular malformations (abnormal blood vessels that are prone to bleeding without treatment).
SRS treatments are available at Brigham and Women's Hospital's main campus, at Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center at South Shore Health and at Brigham and Women's Sturdy Memorial Radiation Oncology Center.
Before treatment, you will receive CT and MRI scans, and special stereoscopic x-rays, to help create a highly precise radiation plan for you.
During treatment, you will be given a customized external mask molded to the contours of your face and head. This mask helps to prevent movement as SRS requires immobilization. Because the brain does not move (as do the lungs, for example) and the skull serves as a stable gauge for the location of the tumor, the clinical team can deliver high doses of tightly focused radiation beams with pinpoint precision to treat tiny tumors.
Large tumors sometimes require radiation to be given over multiple treatment days, a technique called stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT).
A significant percentage of patients we treat with SRS have brain metastases (which is when the cancer spreads from other parts of the body to the brain). In patients with 1-4 brain metastases, SRS is generally favored over whole brain radiation, a technique that treats the entirety of the brain, as it causes less side effects. In patients with more than 4 brain metastases, whole brain radiation is considered more standard treatment. Our radiation oncologists have designed a clinical trial to test the effectiveness of whole brain radiation against SRS in patients with 5-20 brain metastases. If successful, this may be the first trial to assess whether patients with 5-20 brain metastases can be safely treated with SRS.
Our radiation oncologists and physicists have also developed a technique called one-isocenter, multi-target volumetric modulated arc therapy to treat many tumors in the brain in one session. Historically, if a patient had multiple tumors in the brain, radiation had to be delivered to each tumor in sequence, causing treatment to last many hours. Using this new technique, multiple tumors can be treated in approximately 30 minutes.
We have also implemented a patient-tracking system called optical surface monitoring system (OSMS), which monitors patient motion in real-time. If the patient were to somehow move, the treatment stops until the patient is still. This new system helps increase the precision of the treatment.
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