Fewer than one cerebral edema occurs with several joint meetings of the SRS of brain tumor

A common treatment of brain tumors with multiple sessions of radiation appears to cause brain swelling less than treating the tumor once with a high dose of radiation, say researchers at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University Hospital. Benign brain tumors called meningiomas are often treated with a single high dose of radiation with stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS). At Georgetown, is SRS using the CyberKnife. A single treatment SRS results in good tumor control, but after treatment (edema) swelling is a common and potentially serious.

In a study today on the 51st Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology in Chicago, the Georgetown researchers say, it seems a safer option.

"As the single dose delivery of low doses of radiation in three, four or five meetings leading CyberKnife good control," explains Christopher Lominska Georgetown, MD, lead author of the study and physician in radiation medicine. "The number of meetings have caused the additional premium of less edema."

For the study, researchers examined the records of 81 patients treated at Georgetown from April 2002 until April 2008. "The swelling occurs rather rarely in patients treated with SRS several" Lominska said. "Three, four or five treatments with the CyberKnife seem to be equivalent low interest rates edema conventional radiation, which often result means 30 treatments. The CyberKnife SRS allow good tumor control with fewer side effects, and in less time than conventional therapy.