What is Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS)?
Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS) is a type of radiotherapy that allows precise and high dose radiation beams to be delivered to a small, localized area of the body, mostly in the brain to destroy a lesion. It is usually a single dose of treatment but may include up to 5 treatments.
It works like a targeted missile which strikes and destroys the tumor with minimal collateral damage.
Unlike open surgery, SRS is relatively painless and non- invasive, and has been used as an effective alternative to surgery or conventional standard fractionated radiotherapy for treating small tumours and other selected medical conditions.
How does Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS) work?
Similar to external beam radiation therapy, radiosurgery is performed using a linear accelerator. It generates a high- energy radiation beam focused precisely on the tumour. The beam is delivered from many different angles, intersecting at the tumour, to deliver the prescribed amount of radiation.
During treatment planning, our clinical team utilizes one or more types of 3-dimensional scans. These can include a CT scan, an MRI and/or a PET scan. Through the use of three-dimensional computer-aided planning and the high degree of immobilization, the treatment can minimize the amount of radiation that passes through healthy brain tissue. Radiosurgery shapes the radiation beam to match the outline of the tumor and includes a very small margin of normal brain to prevent recurrence.
