Gamma‐knife radiosurgery in pediatric cerebral and skull base tumors

Abstract

Gamma-knife surgery is an effective treatment in some non-resectable cerebral and skull base pediatric tumors. In most cases, it is used in combination with other therapeutic modalities. It is safe and well tolerated.

Robotically guided radiosurgery for children

“…The advantages of radiosurgery for the treatment of pediatric brain tumors have been recognized for many years, and radiosurgical treatment of children has been successfully implemented at many institutions 2,4,5,7,9–12,14–16,19,21,23,24,27,28,31,34,36,37. The popularity of this method is due to the ability of radiosurgical techniques to spare surrounding tissues by focusing the delivered dose onto the tumor, an ability critical to pediatric patients who are prone to devastating cognitive decline following conventional radiotherapy 8,17,18.…”

Treatment of unresectable malignant rhabdoid tumor of the orbit with tandem high‐dose chemotherapy and gamma‐knife radiosurgery

“…Gamma‐knife radiosurgery is a rather noninvasive therapeutic procedure that delivers a single high dose of radiation therapy to a well‐defined target volume, while sparing normal brain tissue surrounding the tumor. This treatment has been proven effective in many pediatric brain tumors 9,10, although there is little information available about its indications, dosage, and outcome. The only limiting factor is the size of the lesion: the lesion should be less than 3 cm in diameter or less than 10 cm 3 in volume.…”

Conformal Radiation Therapy for Childhood CNS Tumors

“…The mean tumor margin dose was 13.8 Gy in a single treatment. Seven of the patients had stable disease after a median follow-up of 78.6 months [25]. Other investigators reported on 12 children with craniopharyngiomas treated with radiosurgery using a gamma-knife [26].…”

“…Radiosurgery can be delivered from 201-cobalt sources in a gamma-knife or with arc photon fields from a linear accelerator. The use of gamma-knife radiosurgery was reported in a study of 12 children with tumors in the cerebral or base of skull regions that included pilocytic astrocytomas and craniopharyngiomas [25]. The mean tumor margin dose was 13.8 Gy in a single treatment.…”