Showing Stereotactic Radiotherapy

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Stereotactic radiotherapy is used to treat small amounts of tissue, usually located in the brain. It works by using a computer to build up a three dimensional picture of the area that requires treatment. The patient is then positioned very precisely so that the treatment is accurately focused on the affected area. Beams of high energy x-rays are then delivered to kill the tumour cells. There are two different machines that can be used to deliver radiotherapy. The original approach used gamma rays and was therefore called the gamma knife. The most recent and commonly used machines however, are called linear accelerators, LinAcs. These are used to deliver stereotactic radiotherapy. Due to the complexity of the treatment and the need for accuracy, stereotactic radiotherapy is usually given as a single high dose treatment. It is commonly used as a boost treatment after the patient has received a course of normal radiotherapy.