When you’re diagnosed with a serious condition like a metastatic brain tumor, the last thing you want is side effects of treatment that can further impair your health and quality of life. When Kathlene Laurel was diagnosed with a brain metastasis, the specialists at The Valley Hospital Gamma Knife Center worked with her to develop a treatment plan that kept the healthy areas of her brain just that — healthy.
“Our treatment goal for her was to destroy the lesion without causing significant side effects to her healthy brain tissue, says Michael F. Wesson, M.D., a board-certified radiation oncologist at Valley.
“Gamma Knife Perfexion treatment has helped to preserve Kathlene’s ability to think, speak and remember, while providing her with excellent tumor control,” adds enter Co-Director Anthony D’Ambrosio, M.D.
Read more about Kathlene’s treatment for her brain metastasis — and how she’s doing today — here.
Sparing Patients from Side Effects
Gamma Knife Perfexion radiosurgery delivers a precise, concentrated dose of powerful radiation that attacks tumors while sparing healthy brain tissue — so patients experience fewer debilitating side effects like memory loss or language deficits. (Such long-term neurocognitive side effects have been shown to occur more frequently when whole-brain radiation therapy is used.) In fact, prospective, randomized research presented last year showed that stereotactic radiosurgery was better at preserving neurocognitive function than whole-brain radiation therapy in patients with brain metastases.
If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with brain metastases, contact the Gamma Knife Center to see how Gamma Knife radiosurgery may treat your condition while sparing the brain from serious side effects.
