Metastatic brain tumors and treatments

As success rate for treatment of primary cancer progresses, there has been a decided upswing in the number of metastatic brain tumors. Approximately 10-15 percent of all patients detected with primary cancer will develop a secondary cancer in the brain, with metastatic brain tumors affecting about 200,000 people a year.

Most of those people will have some type of brain tumor treatment. New types of cancer demand more specialized tools and surgical techniques, such as the gamma knife used with stereotactic radiosurgery.

Radiosurgery is the precise delivery of a single dose of radiation to a specific area of the brain. Thus, the radiation will kill the cancer. In stereotactic radiosurgery, the gamma knife is used in conjunction with a 3D reference frame that is attached to the patient's head during the procedure, resulting in acceptable ranges for mechanical, radiological and clinical accuracy.

Go to braintumortreatment.org, sponsor of this post, and read about this fascinating topic. Your live may depend upon it.

Tags: stereotactic radiosurgery, brain tumor, metastatic brain tumors