Targeting tumors

0 Comments | La Crosse Tribune, Dec 04, 2004 | by Rindlfeisch, Terry

Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center has new cutting-edge surgery that destroys brain and spine tumors without a surgical cut to the body.

The medical center's new linear accelerator, which delivers radiation to cancer patients, has been adapted for the new advanced cancer treatment system called stereotactic radiosurgery. In radiosurgery, highly focused doses of radiation are targeted from one or more angles to destroy the tumor.

Radiosurgery is an outpatient procedure that requires no incision and eliminates complications and substantial recovery time associated with open brain surgery, said Dr. Patrick Conway, a Gundersen Lutheran radiation oncologist.

Conway said Gundersen Lutheran is the first in the region and one of the few medical centers in the Midwest to offer this specific technology. "The vast majority of radiation oncologists in the country would like to have this technology," he said.

Conway said traditional cancer surgery is not always an option because of other illnesses, tumor location or the risk to other nearby organs. "We can deliver high doses of radiation without affecting the tissue or organs right next to the tumor," Conway said.

A brain tumor could be sitting right next to a nerve that affects hearing, so radiosurgery could destroy the tumor without causing a patient to go deaf, he said.

Only half of spinal tumors can be treated with conventional surgery, but radiosurgery can treat small, welldefined spinal tumors, Conway said.

The hardware, software and the new linear accelerator, which costs $3 million, also allows radiation oncologists to give more precise regular radiation treatments for cancer patients in what is called radiotherapy.

In radiotherapy, cancer patients can receive radiation in several installments with fewer side effects because cells are given time to heal between treatments. Conway said radiotherapy can reduce a tumor's size so that it is more likely to respond to further treatment by chemotherapy.