On March 4, a 69-year-old male patient was Riverside & University of Virginia Radiosurgery Center’s 1,000th patient to be treated since the facility opened. Clinicians used their Leksell Gamma Knife® to treat a metastatic melanoma in the patient’s brain. Coincidentally, the patient also had undergone radiosurgery earlier for lung and chest wall nodules, benefiting that time by Riverside’s Elekta Synergy® S. Whether the disease is intra- or extra-cranial, Riverside can offer patients a highly targeted radiosurgical solution.

Radiosurgery is a form of radiation therapy that emphasizes higher than typical radiation doses applied with extreme accuracy and over a very limited number of therapy sessions. Gamma Knife surgery is accomplished nearly exclusively in one treatment, while linear accelerator-based radiosurgery involves one to five sessions or “fractions.” Riverside worked with the University of Virginia to establish the facility, starting Gamma Knife treatments in June 2006 and Elekta Synergy S treatments in May 2007.

“Some centers economize by acquiring a single general system to perform radiosurgery for all targets in the head and body,” says Riverside radiation oncologist Ronald Kersh, M.D. “However, if you’re serious about attaining the highest radiosurgical accuracy possible, you need to consider dedicated treatment systems. Leksell Gamma Knife is viewed as the gold standard for accuracy in treating intracranial targets, such as metastases and functional disorders. Similarly, Elekta Synergy S not only provides exceptional accuracy for extracranial targets, but it also complements Gamma Knife by enabling treatment of larger intra-cranial lesions located in critical areas that would benefit from a multi-fraction approach, such as large meningiomas or optic nerve tumors.”

Read the rest of Riverside’s story here:
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Dr. Ronald Kersh